California's Current Laws Grant Immunity to Autonomous Vehicle from Traffic Tickets

Nov 25, 2023 01:03 AM EST

The rise of autonomous vehicles (AVs) has brought about a unique challenge in the realm of law enforcement and traffic regulations. Under the current legal landscape California, autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars, enjoy a notable privilege: they cannot be issued traffic tickets for moving traffic violations.

The Exemption, Problem

Driveless cars are not ever going to receive traffic tickets for any violation. Modification needs to be done with the California's current laws. According to California's traffic laws, fines can only be issued to real drivers.

The NBC Bay Area investigation obtained an internal document from San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott that clears this point by giving officers specific instructions. Self-driving automobiles (AVs) without human drivers can't earn tickets for road offenses in California. State traffic laws require tickets to be issued to actual "drivers".

According to NBC Bay Area, autonomous vehicles have ignored red lights, blocked emergency vehicles, and entered construction zones. These occurrences cast doubt on driverless car road safety. The accidents demonstrate the need to review and improve autonomous driving technologies to assure driverless car safety and reliability.

It also stated about growing concerns surrounding self-driving cars, particularly the recent accusation that autonomous vehicle manufacturer Cruise misled the DMV regarding an accident that resulted in a pedestrian sustaining serious injuries in San Francisco.

According to NBC Bay Area, these are prompting discussions about the necessity of implementing new laws and oversight mechanisms to manage the rapid growth of this technology. Presently, California's city streets are hosting numerous self-driving car tests, even as safety worries persist and questions persist about law enforcement's ability to penalize autonomous vehicles for traffic violations.

Driveless cars can also cause brief traffic jam. Last August 14, CNN reported as of the previous week, the San Francisco Fire Department has documented 55 instances in 2023 where autonomous vehicles have obstructed their emergency response operations.

Videos shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, reveal that at least 10 Cruise autonomous vehicles were stationary with their hazard lights flashing in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, close to the location of the Outside Lands music festival. Moreover, witnesses, speaking to CNN affiliate KPIX-TV, reported that these driverless cars blocked intersections for approximately 15 minutes on Friday evening, raising concerns about the potential for autonomous vehicles to obstruct emergency vehicle access in the area.

Are Driveless Cars Really Safe?

The argument whether driveless cars are safer than a human driver continues. But The National Law Review presents its claim about the how safe is an autonomous vehicle (AV). Self-driving cars have more accidents than human-driven ones, although less serious injuries. While regular cars had 4.1 accidents per million kilometers, self-driving cars had 9.1.The term "driverless," even though these cars are not entirely autonomous, is deceptive.. Most self-driving car accidents involve distracted drivers, despite the expectation that they should be alert to take control.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an autonomous Tesla crash in Texas on April 17 that killed both passengers and burned for hours. Police reported that no one was driving the vehicle during the crash.