Padilla driverless vehicle bill signed

Extracted from California Senator Alex Padilla's web page

GOVERNOR BROWN SIGNS PADILLA DRIVERLESS VEHICLE BILL

September 25, 2012

Legislation Establishes Performance and Safety Standards 

Mountain View, CA – Governor Jerry Brown today signed SB 1298, authored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), at a bill signing ceremony at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. The new law will establish safety and performance standards for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles on California’s roads and highways. The bill goes into effect on January 1st, 2013.

“Governor Brown’s signature today represents an opportunity for our state to lead the nation in driverless vehicle technology. Tragically, thousands of Californians die each year in auto accidents.  The vast majority of these collisions are due to human error. Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to reduce traffic accidents and save lives,” said Senator Alex Padilla.

“California is at the forefront of technology. Developing and deploying autonomous vehicles will save lives and create jobs.  California is uniquely positioned to be a global leader in this field,” added Senator Padilla.

“Autonomous technology is not science fiction. We are living in the era of Moore’s Law where every two years we double our computer processing speeds.  This is allowing us to make exponential leaps in advanced technology.  To a large extent, that progress has made self-driving cars possible sooner, rather than later,” said Senator Alex Padilla. “Establishing safety standards for these vehicles is an essential step in that process,” Padilla added. 

“Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, autonomous technology can analyze the entire 360° driving environment more quickly and accurately and can operate the vehicle more safely than a human driver,” said Senator Alex Padilla. 

Indeed, Google’s fleet of autonomous vehicles has already logged 300,000 test miles on California’s roads and highways. Ford and GM are also steadily moving towards fully autonomous vehicles by introducing more and more semi-autonomous features to the market.  One feature is autonomous self-parking that allows a driver to let the car park itself.  Adaptive cruise control is another semi-autonomous feature.  With traditional cruise control the driver sets the speed and the car maintains that speed even when approaching an obstacle.  With “adaptive” cruise control, the driver sets the speed and the vehicle autonomously brakes and accelerates with the flow of traffic.  Other features already on the market are front and back pre-collision braking in which the car responds for the driver to avoid collisions, and lane departure warning systems that alert the driver when the vehicle is drifting out of the lane.

Fully autonomous vehicles are the logical next step in automotive development.  Volkswagen is working with Stanford University on an autonomous vehicle design.  Audi, Volvo and BMW are all working on autonomous technology.  According to Jim McBride, a technical expert at Ford Research and Innovation, “There is no technology barrier from going where we are now to the autonomous car.”  Bill Ford, Executive Chairman at Ford Motor Company stated earlier this year that their vehicles should have "auto pilot" capabilities as early as 2017.  Even JPL’s Curiosity Rover has an autonomous mode to navigate around obstacles on the surface of Mars.

Specifically, the new law required by SB 1298 will:

• require the Department of Motor vehicles to
• create an application and approval process for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles on California’s roads and highways
• establish safety and performance standards for the safe operation of autonomous vehicles
• allow a licensed driver to test “drive” an autonomous vehicle
• require that an autonomous vehicle meet all applicable safety standards and performance requirements in state and federal law