Texas legislators want greater control of Tesla robotass on their roads

Most of the public information on Tesla’s launch of Robotaxi come from a small group of influencers invited by the company to be among those to take the first races in its new technology. Many have financial shares in the company; Others have created media careers on promotion and cheerleara the work of the electric-wander company. However, some of the videos published online show the Tesla robotass that make mistakes.

A video shows a robotaxi Briefly crossing a double yellow line To drive in the arrival traffic, an apparent failed attempt to make a left turn. Another exhibition The human monitoring that stops the Tesla to avoid a UPS truck in support in a parking lot. Another exhibition The car that looks like “ghost brake”, which suddenly stops and abruptly apparently.

Autonomous vehicles are mostly regulated at the state level and the current rules of Texas offer companies wide mooring to test and take sides on its public roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Security Dog of the Nation, can only intervene after technology is already on the streets and has proven dangerous. In a declaration and -mail that responds to documented accidents, a spokesman for the NHTSA wrote that the agency “is aware of the reference accidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to collect further information”.

By law, the developers of autonomous vehicles must report some data on the accidents to the NHTSA, although the Trump administration has limited the developers of information to share and have allowed them to protect them from the public view.

The new Texas law, Bill del Senate 2807It requires that autonomous vehicle companies get operating permits before hitting public roads. Companies must also provide the state response to emergencies for the first rescuers. The law does not start until 1 September. Wired asked the Texas Public Security Department if he had received the response procedures for Tesla’s emergencies before the company had launched his service on Sunday; The Department did not answer.

The new state permit process is not as intense as that used by California, which was the first state of the country to create autonomous tests of testing and implementation of vehicles. But permission means that Texas regulators can intervene to prevent a company from operating on its roads if the company is considered involved in too many safety accidents.

Three other companies – Waymo, Zoox and Av Ride – operate in Austin. Waymo is the only one to offer public runs in the city, which users can greet through the Uber app.

Eckhardt says that Tesla wants to have gone through a longer public period of mapping, test and sharing data before launching to Austin. “We need good local and state communication, to make sure to really satisfy our public security obligations,” he says.