Self-driving vehicles without the typically required safety driver soon will be hitting the road, at least in California. The
state’s Department of Motor Vehicles has decided to allow autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds to receive permits for riding on public roads.
Under the new regulations, qualifying vehicles include autonomous passenger cars, midsized pickup trucks and cargo vans carrying goods such as groceries or
pizza. The DMV can start approving new applications in 30 days.
The vehicles will
be required to follow the same requirements in place for testing and deploying autonomous passenger vehicles. Depending on the permit, companies
will be able to test their vehicles with or without a backup driver.
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“The adoption of these regulations means Californians soon
could receive deliveries from an autonomous vehicle, provided the company fulfills the requirements,” Steve Gordon, DMV director, said. “As always, public safety is our primary
focus.”
Previous regulations did not allow for testing or commercial use of light-duty, self-driving delivery vehicles on public
roads.
While the vehicles can be self-driving, they still have to be remotely “connected” in some way.
The regulations say that the self-driving delivery
vehicles would require a communication link between the vehicle and remote operator as well as a process to communicate between the vehicle and law enforcement.
While 65 companies already have
permits to test autonomous vehicles with a safety driver in California, only Alphabet’s Waymo has a permit for driverless testing.
That is about to change.