Overview
- California’s DMV adopted updated autonomous-vehicle rules in early May that let police ticket driverless cars, with the owner or operator liable, and enforcement begins in July.
- The update opens state roads to autonomous heavy trucks over roughly 4.5 tons and to midibuses up to about 6.35 tons for public transit and university campuses.
- New minimums require 50,000 test miles with a safety driver and 50,000 without for passenger AVs, and 500,000 with and 500,000 without for heavy vehicles before commercial approval.
- First responders must be able to take manual control, reach an operations center by a live voice link within 30 seconds, and direct AVs to exit geofenced emergency zones within two minutes.
- The DMV can now scale back existing approvals to protect public safety, and operators must disclose more data including crashes, hard-braking events, and stalled vehicles.