New York City welcomes robotaxis — but only with safety drivers

New York City announced a caller permitting strategy for companies willing successful testing autonomous vehicles connected its roads, including a request that a quality information driver beryllium down nan steering instrumentality astatine each times.

As cities for illustration San Francisco proceed to grapple pinch the problems posed by afloat driverless for-hire vehicles, New York City is trying to get up of nan problem by outlining what it calls “a rigorous permitting program” that it claims will guarantee applicants are “ready to trial their exertion successful nan country’s astir challenging municipality situation safely and proficiently.”

“This exertion is coming whether we for illustration it aliases not,” Mayor Eric Adams said successful a connection to The Verge, “so we’re going to make judge that we get it right.”

The requirements would exclude companies without erstwhile autonomous conveyance testing acquisition successful different cities. Applicants would request to taxable accusation from erstwhile tests, including specifications connected immoderate crashes that occurred and really often information drivers person to return power of nan conveyance (also known successful California arsenic “disengagements). And successful what is judge to beryllium nan astir arguable provision, afloat driverless vehicles won’t beryllium permitted to trial connected nan city’s nationalist roads; only vehicles pinch information drivers will beryllium allowed.

New York City is hoping to debar akin problems by requiring companies to support information drivers successful nan vehicles astatine each times. Under Adams’ proposal, companies would still request to get a licence from nan authorities Department of Motor Vehicles. In addition, applicants would person to supply specifications connected really their information drivers are hired and trained and “attest that they will travel caller champion practices from nan Society of Automotive Engineers.”

Naturally, autonomous vehicles would beryllium required to travel each postulation laws and curb regulations. Likewise, companies would request to taxable “assurance protocols for really nan usability will compensate for immoderate AV strategy limitation aliases nonaccomplishment and proactively intervene to debar imaginable crashes.”

Data from AV testing will yet beryllium disposable connected nan city’s Open Data portal, a spokesperson said. As portion of nan exertion process, nan city’s Department of Transportation will reappraisal requests from applicants to withhold definite information from disclosure connected nan ground of confidentiality.

While different states person go hotbeds for AV testing, New York has been a spot of a shade town. Part of nan logic could beryllium nan state’s strict rules, which see mandating that information drivers support their hands connected nan instrumentality astatine each times. The authorities rule primitively required a constabulary escort, but a renewal of the law respective years agone removed that language.

Automakers and tech companies testing AVs thin to flock to states pinch friendlier regulations (like Arizona and Texas) aliases places that are much convenient to their office (like California). New York is neither, but it does correspond 1 of nan biggest taxi markets successful nan world — and truthful is simply a ripe target for robotaxi companies.