Waymo has filed suit against the California DMV to prevent driverless car crash data from being released to the public. Waymo, an autonomous vehicle operator, claims that the car crash data should be considered a trade secret.
In California, over 60 autonomous vehicle companies are permitted to operate test vehicles on public roads, putting California's DMV in charge of the largest autonomous vehicle program in the country. Only a handful of those AV programs are approved to operate fully autonomous vehicles, and even fewer have received approval to deploy vehicles for commercial purposes.
Waymo has filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court, arguing that releasing information about how it handles certain autonomous vehicle emergencies, how it responds when its vehicles attempt to drive somewhere they are not intended to go, and how to handle steep hills or tight curves to the public would put the company at a competitive disadvantage.