A proposed bill in California would require autonomous taxi companies to report extensive data on collisions and safety maneuvers or else face steep daily fines, continuing tough scrutiny on the companies.
The vehicles are frequently seen blocking traffic and unable to navigate emergency vehicles in San Francisco, raising safety concerns among Bay Area residents and politicians.
The new bill, proposed in the state Legislature, would double down on data reporting requirements for the companies by forcing them to not only report when their vehicles collide with another vehicle or object, but also report whenever their actions have to be manually overridden due to safety.
The companies are already required to report the data during testing operations but not during regular use.
General Motors-owned Cruise’s self-driving vehicles were pulled off California streets in October after a safety investigation by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles argued the taxis were “not safe for the public’s operation” and that Cruise “misrepresented” safety information.
Google’s Waymo vehicles have become commonplace in San Francisco but have faced bumps in development, including a mass recall of software in February. A street crowd also set one of the vehicles on fire out of protest last month.
State regulators allowed Waymo to expand its operations into Silicon Valley and Los Angeles earlier this month.
Assembly Member Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill, said he hopes it can make the technology safer.
“I’m supportive of the technology; I’m not trying to shut [robotaxis] down,” Haney told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But as they grow from testing to full deployment, there’s a lot that’s not being shared, and that hurts trust, it hurts transparency, and it hurts safety.”