Similar to most states, California regulates autonomous vehicles at the state level. Its Department of Motor Vehicles oversees AVs operating on public roadways, while the Public Utilities Commission regulates their commercial activities.
Leaving cities without a voice in the process is a critical mistake that will ultimately slow widespread adoption of AVs, said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies automated driving technology.
Instead of public-private collaboration, “We have public versus private,” Reimer said. “The city of San Francisco is dealing with all the calamities of the technology’s deployments. Some of these are growing pains, which are being solved, but all you’re doing is putting the city in a tinderbox waiting for the next major public mishap.”
Case in point: One day after the California Public Utilities Commission made its approvals, as many as 10 Cruise vehicles stopped in the middle of Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood following an experience with “wireless connectivity issues,” according to the company.
Those problems arose because a large number of people attended a nearby music festival, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Given any number of ballgames, concerts or festivals that occur in cities, intermittent connectivity should not be considered anomalous.
It’s the kind of complication that worries Llanos.
“We see what can happen when the system shuts down,” she said. “It creates utter chaos, and as cities, we have to figure out how to pick up the pieces.”
Los Angeles has a particular interest in the evolving robotaxi rollout. Waymo and Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, have signaled they intend to commercially deploy driverless vehicles in Los Angeles at a future date.
When they’re ready, both will need regulatory approval from the California Public Utilities Commission. In watching what’s transpired in San Francisco, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation has already documented some concerns.
Cruise vehicles “regularly engage in illegal behavior” by picking up and dropping off passengers in travel lanes, the city said in a filing with the commission, while double-parked AVs pose a safety risk to other vehicles and vulnerable road users.
As Los Angeles anticipates problems, the city may also hold the blueprint for a solution.
