Going driverless in Texas will take a trip to DMV

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that concerned with the possibility of problems ahead as companies ditch drivers for autonomous vehicles, Texas lawmakers are aiming at a light touch — but new requirements — for companies behind driverless cars and trucks. “The state needs to be in a position to step in and have a set of rules,” said state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “But we are not fixing to slip something through here. We are going to have a methodology.” Nichols, with support from other senators, said he expects legislation in the upcoming session will require companies such as Waymo, Cruise and Aurora to inform the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles when they pull drivers from vehicles and allow the vehicles to make solo trips. The DMV would then handle permitting and registration of the vehicles and some oversight of reported problems with the systems. The new regulations, which would require approval from the legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott, would apply only to fleets of driverless cars and trucks, such as those used to ferry trailers of goods or small robotaxis carrying people.

The rules and registration would not apply to privately owned autonomous vehicles. That exclusion is important to the industry, which is nearing — albeit slowly — sales of private self-driving cars and small trucks, said Nick Steingart, director of state affairs for the Alliance of Automotive Innovation. Nichols and other lawmakers began talks over the summer with companies involved in autonomous vehicle development. The aim, he said, was to not rewrite or change trucking and paid ride rules, but integrate driverless vehicles into those rules. Federal officials, meanwhile, govern the technology and the safety requirements related to the industry. Nichols said the state must have a system that responds to issues related to the driverless vehicles and maintain that the companies are using Texas’ roads safely without stifling innovation. “The industry is already working with us, we do not want to disrupt that,” Nichols said. Texas lawmakers in 2017 approved rules for autonomous vehicles, largely to get ahead of cities in the state setting their own rules. Following the debate over ride hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft — wherein the state superseded city and county rules that attempted to regulate the companies similar to cab companies, which the companies fought — state leaders opted to get ahead with driverless cars. Rather than leave the changing technology and its regulations to cities, state lawmakers stepped in.