Autonomous vehicles are on the horizon, bringing with them many concerns. If there is an accident with one, who will be at fault, the owner or the manufacturer, are they truly ready to be on the roads without at least a safety driver present, and what if the equipment malfunctions?

Last week Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that takes effect July 1, that allows a self-driving car to operate without a human operator as long as it meets all insurance requirements. The law also exempts the occupants from standard laws against texting and other distractions. This law truly allows passengers to play video games on their phone while the vehicle takes them somewhere.

The bill modifies a number of existing laws, and begins with a number of definitions. Automated driving system is defined as the hardware and software that are together capable of performing the entire dynamic driving task of an autonomous vehicle on a sustained basis, whether it is limited to a specific operational design domain or not. Autonomous vehicles are defined as any vehicles with such an automated driving system. Dynamic driving task is all of the real-time operational and tactical functions needed to operate a vehicle in traffic within its designated operational design domain, if any, excluding strategic functions such as scheduling trips and selection of destinations and waypoints. Fully autonomous vehicles are vehicles equipped with an automated driving system designed to function without a human operator. Operational design domain is the specific operating domain in which an automated vehicle is designed to operate properly, including but not limited to roadway types, speed ranges, weather conditions and time of day, and any other constraints. A vehicle could be designed for operating in daylight only, or restricted from operating over a specific speed limit.