MADISON, Wis. — A Republican lawmaker wants to put regulations in place for vehicles without anyone behind the wheel.
Last year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an Automated Vehicle Framework through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The initiative is meant to promote the growth of self-driving vehicles across the country.
Currently, regulating autonomous vehicles is up to each individual state.
State Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, is working to create those regulations in Wisconsin.
“We need to intervene and create some guardrails that the whole industry can follow, like the lane lines on the road,” Maxey said.
Maxey said there are four autonomous vehicles currently operating in the state.
Learning that is what led him to author a bill to create an autonomous driving safety board through WisDOT. Anyone looking to operate autonomous vehicles would have to apply for permits through the board.
The permit holders would also be on the hook for any damages if their vehicles are involved in crashes.
“Currently, there’s no standards that tell them who’s the responsible party, what level of insurance they must have on their vehicle,” Maxey said.
The potential of opening the state up to self-driving cars is drawing concern.
ABATE of Wisconsin is a motorcycle rights and safety organization. Steve Panten with ABATE said more research needs to be done about how autonomous vehicles react to motorcyclists.
“There’s a published report about how it interacts with bicycles, pedestrians, with kids but there’s nothing in regards with how they interact with motorcycles,” Panten said.
Panten said ABATE isn’t against the technology; they just want to see additional testing done before more self-driving cars hit the road.
“We see that this is being developed to make the roads safer, and we’re big fans of that, but let’s make sure that the technology is effective for all road users,” Panten said.
Maxey said he understands ABATE’s apprehension, but he believes the state needs to get the ball rolling on legislation sooner rather than later.
“Between now and next session, we may go from four to 40, and then we’ve got a bigger issue that we’d have to fix,” Maxey said.
Public hearings for the bill were held in both a state assembly and state senate committee this month. It needs to be passed by those committees before it can be scheduled for a vote.
