A bill making its way through the state legislature could make Utah the first state in the country to allow self-driving vehicles on all roads and set liability and insurance rules for autonomous vehicles.
While legislation concerning self-driving vehicles has already been passed in multiple states including most notably in California, Nevada, and Michigan, no state has opened up the doors quite as fully to autonomous vehicles as Utah is proposing to do.
HB371 passed through the House Transportation Committee unanimously on February 21st. Its sponsor, Robert Spendlove (R), claims that the legislation could improve safety and be an economic boon for the state.
“There is a great opportunity because of Utah’s tech center… to really take a lead in this area.” said Spendlove according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
In addition to opening up all of Utah’s roads to autonomous vehicles, the bill would also attempt to answer two unsolved puzzles about the technology: how do you insure self-driving vehicles, and if there’s an accident, who is at fault?
The details still need to be worked out, but insurance and liability would be different depending on the automation level of the vehicle. As Spendlove explains it:
Level 1 – A car that can accelerate by itself, like with cruise control.
Level 2 – “Most of the cars coming out right now are a level 2” because they have lane assist and smart braking.
Level 3 – A car that can do most of the work, but still requires you to be actively engaged.
Level 4 – A car that can do everything on its own, but needs a driver to be able to take over in an emergency.
Level 5 – a fully autonomous car that doesn’t need a person in the vehicle to operate.
According to Spendlove, the implementation date of the bill may be delayed so that they have sufficient time to work out all of the details.
Source: truckinginfo, hybridcars, saltlaketribune, carconnection
The city and state will lose a revenue source from traffic tickets. They will have to layoff half the police force and sell off car and equipment. Then the criminals can really take over.
lose revenue from traffic tickets? that sure doesn,t put so called truck drivers in a good light, maybe you get a lot of tickets but most don,t
The criminals are already in charge. They are the Congressional members dumb bunnies voted for . Killing jobs , killing Medicare and social security yet people are so stupid they will be waving the flag on independence day !!!
Stupid is as stupid does bet they put in the law that the state can’t be sued for their stupidity when people get killed because of this total insanity.
Sad but true !!!
This is terminater movie in real life!!!!!;
It’ll be an interesting experiment in the most litigious society on the planet.
A human operated vehicle is involved in an accident with an autonomous vehicle. The human is injured. Who will they sue?
The owner of the vehicle, even though they weren’t there and have no knowledge of the circumstance?
The maker of the vehicle? The maker of the software? All of the above?
And who will represent those parties in court? The vehicle can’t testify, and our courts don’t allow evidence from non-human witnesses. How can dash cam video be impeached when there is no human with knowledge of the events to testify?
actually the witness will be the truck,, have cameras pointing every direction car or other trk, driver can,t lie and get away with it
How is this going to work in heavy fog or blinding rain or a heavy snowstorm and everyone has been driving in one of these at one time and it is totally chaotic?! I don’t believe any machine can handle all these variables and successfully drive amongst everyone else!
They haven’t figured it out yet, but what the hey, get the bill passed, someone’s gotta start making money. Sounds kinda like the cartoon showing the Congressman bragging to his flunky: Let’s pass a bill and then find justification for it.
Kinda like Sen Schumer agitating to get his underride bill thru. Who’s gonna make the money, Chuck? Ralph Nader said the auto co’s want cheap flash, not safety. Digital safety does not trump physical safety. Ford Pinto had exploding gas tanks. The fix would have cost $11. They decided that $11 was not worth the cost compared to paying for a few more funerals for those dying in fiery crashes.
oh,, don,t know where videos can,t be used in court came from thats just not true
Autonomous big trucks should not ever be on anyone’s highways! Too many different things can happen and then who is responsible for what? How do you sue an autonomous trucker? This is not a public consensus, it is a banker money consensus! I was in an automated warehouse where one of the robots killed another worker just because it was not programmed to stop if someone was in the way! Flattened the guy and went on about its business! There are far too many variables on a crowded freeway, especially in bad weather for these to work properly! STOP them now!!!!!!!!!!!