New York's new budget waives a law prohibiting driverless vehicles, in a move that Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes will help power up a new industry in the state.
The provisions allow a one-year testing program of self-driving and self-parking vehicle technology on public roadways under direct supervision of the New York State Police. The legislation requires that the autonomous vehicles carry a minimum of $5 million in insurance coverage.
The provisions also direct the state motor vehicle commissioner to submit a study by June 1, 2018, on the safety, traffic control, traffic enforcement and other impacts of autonomous vehicle testing.
Cuomo said he wanted the provision in the budget along with the authorization to expand ride-sharing outside of New York City (NYLJ, April 10) because he believes there are certain high-tech, college-based research centers already in the state, such as in Utica and Albany, where work on autonomous vehicles could lead to viable commercial development.
Uber Technologies Inc. did not respond to requests for comment Monday about New York authorizing driverless vehicle testing.
The provisions allowing for the driverless car experimentation were included in the budget bill A3005C/S2005C that was approved along with the rest of the 2017-18 state budget and signed by the governor last week.
Cuomo noted in promoting the expansion of ride-sharing that New York risked being left behind as other states, especially California, have taken the lead in allowing new transportation technologies.
Apple Inc. received permits from California's Department of Motor Vehicles to test three driverless SUVs on state roads (The Recorder, April 14) while Uber's Advanced Technologies Group recently added four more Volvo XC90s to its testing permit in California.
A public comment period in California ended Monday to gather reaction to the state's latest proposed regulations for testing and deploying autonomous cars.
California alone is home to 30 companies and 202 autonomous vehicles permitted for testing, according to sibling publication The Recorder.
A provision in New York state Vehicle and Traffic Law enacted in 1971, §1226, expressly prohibits a motor vehicle from being operated without at least one hand of a driver being on the steering wheel at all times, unless the driver is handicapped and, even then, he or she must maintain one prosthetic device or aid on the wheel.
Sponsors of bills to lift the prohibition in recent years, chiefly state Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, said the Legislature needs to make a change to both legalize testing and experimentation on self-driving and self-parking cars in New York now, and in the future as technological innovations occurred (NYLJ, Dec. 29, 2016).
The Upstate Transportation Association, representing the interests of upstate taxi companies, urged Cuomo and the Legislature to ban self-driving vehicles for the next 50 years.
“This is the only way to guarantee that any upstate jobs created by Uber are not immediately lost when the company shifts to a predominately or entirely driverless fleet,” the association's president, John Tomassi, told state leaders in January.
Such a ban does not appear to have been seriously considered as part of the negotiations that led to the expansion of ride-sharing in the final New York state budget.
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