Blog

Self-driving cars have been sharing the road with drivers in some cities for quite some time as many companies are conducting test rides in cities around the country. Texas specifically has become a main hub for driverless car testing, with Austin slowly becoming one of the largest spots for some companies. Companies with passenger cars such as Waymo and Cruise are testing around the state; however, their largest draw of testing has been for self-driving semi-trucks. While the amount of autonomous vehicle testing has grown over the years, the rules have not changed since 2017. Now, local and state leaders are planning to update the laws.

One state Senator spoke about updating the laws as first responders are not equipped to handle response calls to autonomous driving accidents at the moment. Because the laws do not quite have a precedent on how to handle matters involving driverless cars, first responders lack training on the matter, which puts people at higher risk when sharing the road with them.

Earlier this week a State Senate committee meeting was held to discuss further action.

The Senate Committee on Transportation is who specifically gathered to create new plans to better the rules regarding the autonomous vehicles. They started to lay the groundwork for improvements to overall safety concerns for the vehicles as well as how to navigate dealing with them as a first responder. State Senator Sarah Eckhardt is a member of the committee and who is outspokenly spearheading the fight for updates for first responders’ sake. After the committee hearing, she spoke on the issue saying “I mean pulling over an AV [autonomous vehicle], what do you do? AV in an accident, what do you do? So, we could establish those protocols in advance.”

Recently, public uproar regarding autonomous vehicles has increased.

The growth of public upset over these vehicles came after a video came out of a traffic jam that involved 20 driverless cars from the company, Cruise. This issue caused many drivers in the Lone Star state to lose confidence in the state’s ability to work with and manage these vehicles and their testing companies.