Mobility Committee laments state law curtailing city’s power over driverless car companies

City Council members heard last week about the ongoing public safety concerns that the emerging autonomous vehicle industry has created in Austin.

Last week’s Mobility Committee meeting saw a presentation from staff from the Transportation and Public Works Department as well as public safety departments that updated committee members on their attempts to improve safety and operations for the four AV companies currently operating in Austin. The city began efforts to monitor and move the technology forward safely since 2017, but a state law passed that same year took away cities’ rights to regulate AV companies or compel them to share data or geofence certain areas to limit access to the vehicles that operate as driverless taxis.

Members of the Austin Fire Department and Austin Police Department shared details of incidents in which the driverless cars had failed to respond accordingly to traffic signal hand motions from officers or firefighters at a scene of a public safety incident. Also, in at least one instance, a vehicle failed to allow a Fire Department member to get into the car and manually take control, as had been agreed to as a concession to operating safely in emergency cases.

AFD Battalion Chief Matt Holmes described two incidents in which an AV continued to approach a fire truck with its lights flashing, creating difficulty navigating the truck into a fire station.

“It would actually come closer and closer and closer to the firetruck, within I’d say less than 5 feet, even with firefighters standing there trying to use hand signals to stop,” Holmes said. “So we’re kind of stopped, still stuck out in traffic with lights on, and then the vehicle just decides to immediately just go around (the truck) for whatever reason.”

The meeting took place the day after Cruise, one of the leading AV companies in the U.S., announced its plan to halt operations so it could address public safety issues that caused California regulators to revoke the company’s license to operate in the state. At several points, committee members expressed frustration at not having the power to compel Cruise and other AV companies to operate more safely on Austin streets.

“I’ve said from the beginning that I don’t think this technology is ready for prime time. And by their own operations, they were avoiding larger streets, maintaining a smaller footprint and staying away from special events with higher volumes of traffic and also reducing services during inclement weather. That tells us the company didn’t have enough faith in their own technology,” Council Member Zo Qadri said. “​​It’s unfortunate that state law doesn’t allow us to regulate this unproven technology.”

City data compiled from sources such as 311 calls and camera footage show that the areas with the most problems handling AV traffic include portions of Red River Street, West Campus and portions of Martin Luther King Boulevard, including the area around Austin Fire Station No. 2.

Prior to announcing the pause in service, representatives from Cruise made a presentation earlier this month at the Downtown Commission. That discussion included steps the company was taking to improve its service and prevent more incidents such as the one seen in a viral video clip of more than a dozen Cruise vehicles creating a traffic jam without being able to navigate effectively.

“We’ve seen videos on social media of their cars malfunctioning, causing traffic problems and a lack of immediate solutions, and it’s important for autonomous vehicle companies to realize that these driverless cars can be dangerous and that our public roads should not be a test playground,” Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis said. “We should not be treated like guinea pigs with limited state regulations in place. It’s important we identify ways for autonomous vehicle providers to be held accountable for malfunctions that threaten motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, or slow down our public safety responders.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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