British Columbia bans self-driving cars!

[thewayne]

Now, there's a major caveat, and that is they're banning anything that exceeds SAE Autonomy Level 2. Level 2 includes Teslas and almost all other driver-assist system, it includes all driver assist systems in Canada. Mercedes has one L3 system, and some are not far from release, I've heard the Mercedes system is quite good, but it's also geofenced for California and Nevada highways only: leave those areas and you can't turn on the fully automatic system.

What this does ban, at least as long as the law remains in effect, is things like Waymo and any planned robotaxis. If it doesn't have a person behind the steering wheel ready to take over instantly, it ain't gonna be legal in BC.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/self-driving-cars-banned-in-british-columbia

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/04/19/2219216/british-columbia-bans-level-3-and-above-autonomous-cars

Comments

[disneydream06]

I for one support this. I don't want a vehicle beside/coming at me on the road without some human driving it. :o
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

Makes sense that you always want to have a human at the controls in case of emergency situations or other things that the robots will not realize they need to know about until after the tragedy (or potential tragedy) has happened.