California has announced that it is now allowing companies to operate autonomous vehicles on public roads even without a safety driver on board. This means passenger vehicles, take-out food, and grocery deliveries are about to go fully robotic.
According to a press release put out by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the state will now allow autonomous motor vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds to operate on public roads – with a few criteria.
Those requirements include:
- The vehicles must be tested in a controlled environment that simulates the environment where they will operate.
- Test drivers must be certified and have a clean driving record.
- If the vehicle does not have an on-board safety operator, the vehicle must have a communication link with a remote operator.
- In the event of an accident, the company must submit a collision report to the DMV within 10 days.
Allowing for a remote operator instead of a driver means that companies which are hoping to make fully autonomous local parcel deliveries or taxi services available will be able to test and begin offering their services to the general public as soon as they are able.
The new permits will not be available for vehicles over 10,000 pounds, so only Class 1 and 2 vehicles will qualify.
Source: freightwaves, DMV, theverge, cnbc, therobotreport, forbes
Annnnddddd here come the hackers, hijackers, and ambulance chasers!
You are sooo right.Michael, These “In an accident with a big truck we can get you millions of dollars “shysters will set the stage for higher rates and drive the cost of doing business even higher for trucking companies and ultimately the consumer.There will be a huge increase in fake accidents and staged accidents with no driver behind the wheel.
If an accident occurs, the truck driver and the company should sue the hell out of the company involved and california for allowing a driverless timebomb on it’s road. I can see lawsuits galore, woo weee. Everybody get ready.
Hmmm redo the title of “Convoy”
Starring the Duck R2D2 from Star Wars.
Robot trucks are beez knees.
When I retire I’m gonna turn myself into robot truck driver!
Sounds twisted right? Or is it?
Agreed 200% . Man is slowly wiping out it’s own humanity by replacing human with computer systems and technology.
Pamela I hadn’t thought of that one…
No flesh and bones in the car?
Hummm bright idea..
REMOTELY, why not just cut off a big rig and slam on the breaks…
Especially, when the vehicle got lots of miles on it and needs to be replaced anyway…Smh
Those machines will be covered with recording devices.
I wish those recording devices luck in catching hackers. Be patient. I’m waiting for an autonomous 9-11 involving trucks any day.
Do robots get lonely,?
Cool live video feed for You tube .
You know autonomous trucks get really sad when their oil is not changed regularly.
Man doesn’t think about the consequences of a hacker stealing the technology or a power outage or system shutdown while in operations. Not only that, they’re putting other humanity in jeopardy by allowing a robotic truck on the highway. Technology is great but not 100% full proof. Slowly computers are taking over the human race. Just sit back and watch.
Problem with that theory is autonomous vehicles will have several cameras a at all angles.
So you must not use a cell phone or Computer.?
Next up autonomous lot lizards or is that already a thing ?
A very good point.
What happens when hackers start considering these commercial vehicles as nothing more than their personal playthings to prove their gaming prowess? To endlessly delay . . . or send like missiles to their approved destinations?
Why risk your life invading a school with weapons when you can send a fuel tanker sans driver crashing into one at 60 mph?
And all so we can try to prove we’re more clever than we daily manifest??
I figured that some politician would make that decision. Wonder how much the autonomous truck mfgrs paid Goofy Gov and his brown shirt hench men to do this.? These trucks have not yet been proven any safer than a truck with a driver. Well a good driver anyway in them. It is not the truck they have to worry about, it is the idiots surrounding them mile after mile doing stupid stuff. Will these truck decide to stop due to unsafe road conditions such as icy fog,heavy rain poor visibility the cameras and radar can’t see thru clearly? Still too many questions related to safety for all highway users.
WHY NOT JUMP OUT IN FRONT OF IT AND INSTANTLY BECOME RICH…GOVERNOR NEWSOM WILL TAKE ANY BRIBE ANYBODY OFFERS,, THIS GUYS AN IDIOT,,
Governments across the planet are pushing for autonomy like their lives depend on it. No pesky peasants strikes!
Nothing over 10000 lbs, so that’s not a semi, maybe a box truck, lawsuit and millions to be made.
I’m reminded of all the sci-fi thriller movies where all it took was a box truck full explosives got the job done.
A.I. perception on-par with Human perception is STILL decades away. (Because it turns out seeing the world as Humans see it is a very complex function of “meanings” vs “objects” that even we still don’t know the process of.
So HOW are we going to code it into a processor if even we don’t understand how Humans make the infinite number of perceptual decisions they do a minute behind the wheel?
(Which BTW, may not seem like such an “event” to someone who ONLY drives 5-7 hours a day every day. But it really is quite a feat that we are at least a couple decades away from explaining sufficiently to translate it into reliable computer code.).
My thoughts exactly..but those same hazardous road conditions applies to cars without impromptu decision-making driver too, right?
All I know is that GPS has attempted to steer me wrong on too many occasions. But I was there to notice and correct. Who’s going to do that in driverless cars and trucks?
What about when the front steer tire blows out and there is no place to pull off?
Somebody grab the wd-40
ALL ROBOTS HAVE THE SAME WEAKNESS…….THEY ARE ROBOTS.!!
Pull the plug on idea
Key phrase: good drivers. So many shitty drivers that robots will probably be an improvement. Especially non cdl pro drivers. Cabbies are the worst. Obviously uber will cash in on this and I’d guess accidents go way down based on getting those nuts off the road alone.
So many untested scenarios. This country is so corrupt it’s sad.
Here comes the nite nite mare
The real reason for ab5
Thrilled to know I don’t haul to California
I count myself fortunate that my new trucking company doesn’t haul to California The 55 mph speeds in the deserted deserts were bad enough.
We are thrilled you don’t haul here, too
How is that 55 mph and daily harassment/traffic/ridiculous regs working out for you Joe?
Lol
Put enough money into something and you can do whatever you want apparently. If they kill someone they just pay off the family like Uber did. Just another reason to stay out of California the sweaty buttcrack of the universe that makes the rest of the world take a whiff whether we want to or not.
Hell they have 10 days to report a accident as to us we have too report it right away. Sorry but something definitely smells fishy and it is not the crap that is all over the side walks
There does seem a horrendous disconnect not just of logistics, but of basic humanity as well. Ten days to report an accident involving a human fatality?
I surely must have misread or misunderstood what California has on it’s mind. Let’s remember, we’re talking about the State that is SO pre-occupied with Human value that it’s classified cutting the lawn as carcinogenic!
Read the writing on the wall guys. Save your money and start looking for your post Trucking career.
Or switch to flatbed! We are still at least a decade from robots that can secure/tarp a load! But dry-van drivers had best start marshaling their retirement plans!
Amen
Drive less truck should be not legal at the.there should be a person behind the wheel at all times
Any of my friends and family get killed by this ridiculous law i will Sue the senator and governor of California.
Autonomous vehicle technology is still in its infancy. Passenger plane companies have been experimenting with this technology for more than a decade. The airline industry has been waiting for another industry to actually test the technology in full so they can find all the little bugs and take the brunt of the class action suits. If it does work in California, you can bet your truck driving butts that passenger planes will be following suit. One stand by pilot, robot stewardess’ and so on.
Swift will be slobbering over this story.
It’s California. What could go wrong?
Nothing to see here, move along.
Here’s rooting for the San Andreas Fault! California has officially gotten too silly to be allowed continuance in this multi-verse!
Hey Californians… You spend more than you make, obviously the golden state wants to get the money back by letting the robots work for you. Transportation is the worst place to save the money on. Californians are already leaving the state in huge numbers. You’re going to end up loosing all the people.
There does seem a horrendous disconnect not just of logistics, but of basic humanity as well. Ten days to report an accident involving a human fatality?
I surely must have misread or misunderstood what California has on it’s mind. Let’s remember, we’re talking about the State that is SO pre-occupied with Human value that it’s classified cutting the lawn as carcinogenic!
You meant to say all the qorking taxpayers…the illegals and movie moguls will stay
By the time autonomous trucks get out on the road they will probably be safer than most of these poorly trained drivers out there now days. And at least autonomous trucks won’t be throwing their trash out the window all across the country.
Hmm.
Confusing “dogs” for “Dougs” . . . vs throwing trash on the roadways?
Are you hoping against hope . . . to be taken as a serious commenter?
While I’m not a fan of littering (it represents a fundamental abdication of responsiblity to future generations), I would FAR rather a Human who has yet to learn this . . against a robot that would have trouble distinguishing between “dog” and “Doug” in a critical moment.
(Please explain to all of us how a computer would make this “distinction-of-meaning”? Chances are, even YOU could not explain this).
Yep let’s see those trks fuel,load,unload,open,close doors , get bills signed all by itself cause I won’t do it. Why help an industry that can’t wait to replace you. Also who gonna be qualified to fix,repair especially having the liability if it breaks and kills people. No thanks.
Autonomous car companies have deeper pockets than trucking companies, perhaps the lawyers will go after the shiny object for a while.
Well the government in California is dumb. We can all see hundreds of bad things that can happen with this.
If you deliver or pickup in California do not walk on the sidewalks. Stay in the truckstops.
Soon you’ll be sharing the sidewalks with little cars that could care less if they just knock you out of the way!
L.A. is bad enough right now.
In a few years it’ll be a sci-fi nightmare!
Wow…right on the heels of AB5. CA lost its battle with Uber and Lyft even before the battle begun. So are they trying to lure them into the driverless taxi business, and then whack them?
Pretty soon CA will require all vehicles to be autonomous. Humans will not be allowed to drive cars on CA roads.
You can’t ban humans from driving.. traveling is a right. All that crap about driving being a privilege is entirely untrue..
Ten Days?… Does that mean these unmanned vehicles can hit-and-run? When they break the law, will they stop to receive a ticket? Who gets the ticket? Is a “test driver” responsible for the misdeeds of the robot car?
Human lives are the apparent “dross” to the “Californian” way of thinking. Just how long do you think it will be, before disenchanted miscreants figure out these unmanned trucks are missiles to be aimed at whomever “deserves their ire”?
Whom is responsible indeed! Not the robot. Perhaps the purchaser of the code? Perhaps the producer of the code? Perhaps just the subverter of the code?
OR perhaps the victim for getting in the way of the “progressive” code??
We WILL see this happen.
When a passenger dies in a autonomous taxi. Then who will say OMG.
once again Cali goes and does something stupid
We all know there is to many jobs and nobody to fill them, ask all the homeless people sleeping on the streets. I’m sure this will cut thousands of jobs in the near future, make some room on the sidewalks ex-drivers are going to need a place to set up house.
In a state that can’t stop people from taking a dump on a public sidewalk. Scary!
Joey, we need more people like you… To leave California! There is plenty of room for ignorant people in all the other states. If you did your homework, you would know that states like Arizona and Texas and even Minnesota are much more open and lenient to autonomous trucks
Even Boeing couldn’t get an autonomous rocket to work today. And it didn’t have any traffic to contend with…
California land of “Fruits, Nuts and Flakes!”
U r correct
Wally congratulations I am so very impressed when people (?) like you can spell correctly.
And they will outsource remote operations to India….
I live in Kentukey and when they start letting vehicles drive them selves I’ll make sure I have a good lawyer on stand by. So when one of these remote cars hits me ill Sue them for all there worth.
This state is STUPID and destroyer of mankind
That many less truckers farting. Will be a win for the environment
If I order a pizza how is the driverless vehicle going to get it to my front door? I’m not paying before hand. If the pizza company calls and says “your pizza is at the street” I can say “I paid to have it delivered to me not my curb.” Lol
I 100% QUIT running CA 2 years ago…I can THANK GOD now for sure!
Can’t wait to go there and start cutting off autonomous vehicles.
I can see it now, YouTube sensation .
IDIOTS ! brake checking a autonomous truck!.
Or maybe robot truck fails!!
I live in Tennessee where speeder lights/ robot cops catch drivers and the cameras get shot by country midnight locals. If locals see vehicles driving near their families maybe the midnight express will take out remote vehicles before lives of loved ones are hurt
Now I see why Uber and Lyft have been shunned
Hijackers-will the car know to not drive over boards with nails and does the car stop and pullover with flat tires.
A taxi with driverless service? Didn’t uber have a fatality in such car?
ha ha, boo hoo. according to the Guardian magazine, all remote controlled vehicles have a secret back door, due to the two way telematics. It’s wide open to remote takeover of a vehicles’ brakes, steering and engine. Even former Assistant Attorney General John Carlin sounded the alarm in 2016, right after the terrorist truck attack in France. They are going to be sorry. Just as sorry when the first earth quake buries hundreds of vehicles in Elon Musk’s tunnels under LA. Boo Hoo.
Wow, I figured California would be against testing on humans. Guess I was wrong. Glad I don’t live there.
It would definitely be California to make such a drastic jump. It’s the only place on earth where it’s liberal enough to allow for the rich and famous to rape people, yet puts cancer warnings on products that have not definitively been linked to cancer.
What I wanna know is, who are the recieving mgrs gonna take out their fustrations on when a load is late. Lol, their is an upside to everything. Their gonna have to finally take credit for ordering products to late.
I only feel sorry for whatever family ends up the unfortunate victim of these automated trucks.
Let the lawsuit parade begin.
Amen brother! I just hope I have go GoPro footage.
Ya’ll Please reread the post…No Trucks
But they eventually will have trucks.
Can you say ‘insurance fraud’ ? The state of California is a state of insanity. Just the rate increases for human motorists will be astronomical. One more tax or fee the working class won’t be able to afford.
If anyone has an alternative way to reduce the 1.25 million driver related fatalities annually. Please let the world know. A Nobel prize is waiting for you.
They will not have old trucks on the road don’t you realize that autonomous trucks run up to almost half million dollars at the present time .Do you really think they will put that kind of equipment in a old truck. And I doubt that you will see big autonomous trucks delivering freight anytime soon.
Let the carnage begin. Couldn’t happen to a more imbecilic State. I luv this!
And that’s how you clean the world of dumb people!!!!!
The solution is simple leave California that’s what most intelligent people are doing
As a citizen, i demand these vehicles be marked as least as plainly as HAZMAT vehicles
What are they going to do about all the morons who don’t know how to enter the freeway? Lawsuits will abound! The accident injury law industry is jumping up and down with glee!
Just came to say 99% of commenters are so dumb…
Currently two shitty drivers collide and my insurance goes up.
Next up – two remote cars don’t collide and my insurance goes down.
Bright thinking – what if they do collide with a human? Well, now it’s ONE injured person versus TWO and EVEN if it’s the human at fault my insurance still goes down and everyone is safer since one more person is not driving drunk/drowsy/tired/looking at their phones/with kids in the back distracting/dog jumping out the window/seatbelt off/etc
I can just see a taxi being hijacked with a passenger that’s a new hostage situation. What next
Oh hell naw ” that dam robot is trying to hijack the load”. ??
Now they gonna have to come out with a new ” Smokey and the bandit”!!
I’m all for robot trucking as long as when I jump out in front of it on my little battery powered scooter, an it won’t get mad and run me over?
Blah blah blah !!!!!! Don’t you think all of your nonsense was thought of already.
Anybody got any ideas new name of the title for “Smokey and the bandit”
This time staring C3PO from Star Wars behind the wheel and hauling beer to Atlanta .!
Robot truck was just seen pulling into Popeyes and saying in a robot voice Mr Popeye take me to ur leader.
Oh wait Colonel Sanders is here to fix this mess.
Ain’t no dam clunk of robotic driving gonna be able to out drive me!!
So what happens to the LOT lizards?: are they really gonna be able to get a robot off or just wind up tazed in the forehead by an angry road raging robot?
Well that is going to do nothing for the homeless rate in that state. All these people will be out of a job. Stupid we can’t keep our private info safe from hackers how will they keep these safe.
Man doesn’t think about the consequences of a hacker stealing the technology or a power outage or system shutdown while in operations. Not only that, they’re putting other humanity in jeopardy by allowing a robotic truck on the highway. Technology is great but not 100% full proof. Slowly computers are taking over the human race. Just sit back and watch.