Washington state’s legislators are pondering how to deal with self-driving cars and other futuristic high-tech vehicles.
Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon and chairman of the House Technology & Economic Development Committee, said Thursday that House Democratic leaders have given a green light to him and two other legislators to hold a public workshop in September to begin discussing which issues should be addressed as more autonomous vehicles come to Washington.
The other two legislators are Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island and chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Zack Hudgins, D-Tukwila and also a member of the House technology committee.
One potential item for discussion: what would make self-driving cars legally road-worthy in Washington? “Is there a certain level of competence for a car to be deployed?” Morris said.
Other issues include whether special road stripes or transmitters need to be installed on highways; how car-to-car warning technology should be addressed; how future in-vehicle technologies should be regulated; how the state patrol should get involved; and what insurance and tort liability issues should be explored.
“Lets start chewing on these problems and figure them out,” Hudgins said.
Google recently began testing a self-driving car prototype in Kirkland, Wash. Several other corporations are experimenting with autonomous vehicles and other smart-driving features such as advanced-warning and accident-avoiding systems across the nation.
Since May, two cars with autonomous features — a 2015 Tesla Model S and a 2016 Tesla Model X — crashed while in autopilot mode with people in the drivers’ seats. On May 7, a 40-year-old Ohio man was killed when his Tesla S on autopilot ran into a semi tractor-tralier rig crossing the road in Florida, continuing to drive under the trailer and beyond. The man was the only person in that car.
The second crash took place on July 1 after a Michigan man put his Tesla X on autopilot on a Pennsylvania highway. The car hit a right guardrail, and then barreled across the road to hit a concrete median and flipped. The Michigan man and his passenger escaped serious injury. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating both crashes, according to the New York Times.
“The recent wrecks have absolutely nothing to do with our discussions,” Hudgins said.
Morris and Hudgins said they and Clibborn have been talking about several types of futuristic vehicles and highway technology — such as cars with autopilot — for the past two to three years, prompted by watching such developments unfold. Another factor is that the Legislature maps out major transportation projects several years in advance.
In January 2016, Clibborn introduced a bill to set up a new technology-in-transportation task force, but it did not reach a floor vote by the end of the legislative session. In September, they want to start listing future vehicle and highway issues that the state government will likely have to address.
Morris speculated that major infrastructure improvements won’t be needed until the 2020-2030 decade. Hudgins added: “All of these cars are unlikely to be rolling out soon. … We are not going to solve this immediately,”
