October 28 – Early one morning last year, as state Rep. Josh Bray left his small town of Mount Vernon in southeastern Kentucky to head to the Capitol in Frankfort, he decided to count how many drivers he saw texting or being distracted by something otherwise.
He stopped counting after 24 when he saw a truck driver reading a newspaper on the way.
The incident boosted Republican lawmaker efforts to pass a bill in the Kentucky Legislature this spring that would set rules for self-driving vehicles, including the largest commercial trucks, after July 2026. Bray thinks the rules will ensure that self-driving vehicles are safer than those driven by often distracted human drivers.
The new law for fully autonomous vehicles — vehicles designed to operate without a human driver present — requires owners to submit a safety and communications plan that law enforcement can use and to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance per vehicle, about ten times as much. than the amount for normal passenger cars.
“I felt like it was necessary to have something on the books in Kentucky because we’re kind of a logistics hub,” Bray said. For example, he said, self-driving baggage handling vehicles at an airport in northern Kentucky can now cross a state highway.
The Legislature passed the bill in late March and a few weeks later overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who said the bill was moving too quickly and that there should be a testing period before fully autonomous vehicles are allowed to operate in the state .
Although fully autonomous cars are not yet in regular use in the country, some states have allowed limited testing and pilot programs on public roads. Many state lawmakers are trying to get a head start on self-driving vehicles that will eventually appear on their roads by setting standards for operating the vehicles and rules for law enforcement if they see an autonomous vehicle violating a traffic law. And many laws, like Kentucky’s, require a minimum insurance requirement to protect drivers, passengers and pedestrians if the vehicles are involved in an accident.
This year, five states and Washington, D.C., have passed bills related to fully automated vehicles, according to Douglas Shinkle, deputy director of environment, energy and transportation for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The new laws in Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota allow for the use of fully autonomous vehicles, while the new law in California addresses safety requirements. North Carolina’s brings the vehicles under updated dealer regulations for all cars.
Updates to current legislation
About half of states already have statutes regulating vehicles powered by some degree of autonomous technology — ranging from fully autonomous vehicles not yet on the road to vehicles that have some driver assistance features, Shinkle said. But many of the laws have already changed.
“There’s been a steady march of bills,” he said, “with some going back and refining some of the language. New states are added every year.”
Most of this year’s new laws deal with commercial vehicles, he said. States hope to bring in vehicle manufacturers or other industries that would use the technology.
“A lot of this is motivated by states that don’t want to be left behind,” Shinkle said. “They hope this can lead to jobs in their states.”
But unions fear jobs in the floating sector could be lost to technology.
Dustin Reinstedler, president of the Kentucky chapter of the AFL-CIO, testified against the bill in his state, saying at a hearing that his union favored alternative legislation that called for a study of the “effects of autonomous vehicles on our roads and employment”. of more than 50,000 employees.”
In Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, autonomous vehicles from Waymo, formerly known as Google’s self-driving car project, are already dotting the landscape and allowed to operate within limited areas.
Safety issues
Fully autonomous vehicles have raised safety concerns. California passed a law this year that, among other things, requires manufacturers to continuously monitor every autonomous vehicle on the road and designate a remote human operator to immobilize a vehicle if necessary. The law also allows law enforcement agencies to issue a notice of non-compliance when autonomous vehicles violate local traffic regulations.
Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into four crashes involving Teslas that operated with a partial automation system (which can navigate highways and steer the car through city streets, but requires a licensed driver ), including one in which a pedestrian was killed. In a news release, NHTSA said reduced visibility may have led to the crashes.
An NHTSA spokesperson said in an email that in each incident, the Tesla entered an area with reduced visibility of the road due to sun, glare, fog or dust. She would not elaborate further nor be identified further.
Bray, the Kentucky lawmaker, argued that the self-driving and driver-assisted vehicles are “much safer than human drivers.” He added that fully autonomous vehicles, such as large trucks, can operate in the middle of the night, taking traffic off the road during peak hours and reducing the risk of tired drivers falling asleep.
The idea of driverless semi trucks makes Republican Senator Greg Elkins of Kentucky uneasy. He opposed the bill and supported the governor’s veto.
“My reasoning was that I don’t think the technology is there yet, especially in 18-wheel vehicles,” he said in an interview. ‘I would have agreed with the law that would have imposed restrictions [it to smaller vehicles].”
Alabama’s new law requires at least $100,000 in liability insurance for fully autonomous vehicles, about the same as regular cars.
California’s new law requires $5 million in insurance for manufacturers testing autonomous vehicles on state highways if any of them have an accident.
I just don’t think the technology is there yet, especially on 18 wheel vehicles. – Republican Senator Greg Elkins of Kentucky
Robert Passmore, vice president at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a trade group for insurance companies, said that if individual autonomous vehicles came into regular use, insurance companies would still have to answer the question of “who was driving at the time.” He argued that liability coverage should mirror the coverage required for regular chauffeur-driven cars.
“Our position is that these vehicles should be insured in the same way,” he said. “The things that can happen as a result of driving are much the same. Whatever the minimum limits are for that type of vehicle, they are probably appropriate [for autonomous vehicles]. Most people carry more than the minimum anyway.”
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