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Sometimes autonomous robotaxis mess up, but police in Atlanta say they won’t be issuing citations, blaming that on the courts. In other words, for now it seems Waymo and other services that move into the city won’t have to worry about paying tickets if their robot cars misbehave.
Uber teams up with unlikely ally for new robotaxis.
In other words, there are two sets of rules: one for human drivers and the other for robotaxis. It doesn’t entirely seem fair, but this is one of the many challenges which come as autonomous cars spread across the nation.
This shocking revelation was brought to light by WSB-TV in Atlanta and it has people scratching their heads about how that could be. But we’ve seen other municipalities grapple with gaps in state laws as autonomous vehicles have begun operating inside their borders.
Emory Professor Ramnath Chellappa expressed some dismay at the lack of traffic law enforcement for robotaxis, saying “I can’t believe we’ve reached the stage where our judicial system treats machines better than us.”
Chellappa also told WSB-TV says technology will always outpace laws as they change to accommodate new means of transportation.
We think eventually the Georgia legislature will have to tackle this issue, although when that will happen isn’t clear. Sadly, in some places it’s taken a tragic accident to fuel enough support for such a push, so hopefully that isn’t the case this time around.
Before you start thinking because you have a Tesla or some other vehicle with some self-driving features you can just blame speeding or other violations on the machine, another attorney who spoke to WSB-TV threw cold water on that.
Chris Timmons said if there is a driver sitting up front in a Waymo or other robotaxi, that person can be cited by police. That shuts down any schemes someone might have already dreamt up.
Image via Waymo
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