New York City has announced a new permitting system for companies testing autonomous vehicles on its roads. The system includes a requirement that a human safety driver sit behind the steering wheel at all times. The city claims this will ensure that applicants are ready to test their technology in the country's most challenging urban environment safely and efficiently. The requirements would exclude companies without previous autonomous vehicle testing experience in other cities. Applicants would need to submit information from previous tests, including details on any crashes that occurred and how often safety drivers have to take control of the vehicle.
Fully driverless vehicles will not be permitted to test on the city's public roads; only vehicles with safety drivers will be allowed. The city hopes to avoid similar problems to those faced in San Francisco, where driverless vehicles have blocked roads, and obstructed buses and emergency vehicles.
The new permitting system will also include assurance protocols for how the operator will compensate for any autonomous vehicle system limitation or failure, and proactively intervene to avoid potential crashes. Data from autonomous vehicle testing will be available on the city's Open Data portal, but some data may be withheld from disclosure on the basis of confidentiality. Other states have become hotbeds for autonomous vehicle testing, but New York has been a bit of a ghost town owing to its strict rules, including the requirement that safety drivers keep their hands on the wheel at all times.
