The Los Angeles City Council voted Monday to give itself more power to monitor and potentially make rules about driverless cars in the city, following persistent public concerns about their safety.
The council voted 13-0 on Tuesday to approve three state bills aimed at giving local governments more power to regulate self-driving cars and access to testing data. Two council members were absent from the vote.
The Council is comprised of Los Angeles World Airports, the City Transportation Department, and
Discussions have been held with the Los Angeles Fire Department regarding the deployment of self-driving cars, and the agency will provide a response plan if any issues arise.
The recommendation comes after the City Council adopted a motion introduced by Council Members Tracy Park and Bob Blumenfield in November 2023 calling for further legislation to give Los Angeles elected officials more power to regulate self-driving cars.
Waymo, the self-driving ride-hailing service, is already offering services in San Francisco and Phoenix, and is expanding to Austin and Los Angeles. The company has been testing self-driving vehicles (AVs) in Los Angeles since October 2023.
In March 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission granted Waymo a license to expand in the Los Angeles area. Soon after, the company launched service in a 63-square-mile area stretching from Santa Monica to Downtown Los Angeles.
Waymo has been mapping various Los Angeles neighborhoods over the years, including Koreatown and Westwood, and says it has provided more than 15,000 rides since then.
Concerns about self-driving cars include the possibility that they could block roads, break down, or worsen traffic congestion. The Los Angeles Times reported that a Waymo vehicle crashed into a closing gate at the University of Southern California, causing minor damage.
Waymo has not had any major accidents, but General Motors Co.’s other self-driving car maker, Cruise, came under fire last year after it failed to detect a pedestrian who had been hit by another vehicle and dragged him 20 feet. Cruise also came under fire after nearly colliding with children on a sidewalk.
Waymo reports that its vehicles have seen an 85% reduction in crashes involving injuries and a 57% reduction in police-reported crash rates compared to human-driven vehicles.
California has become one of the biggest testing grounds for self-driving car companies like Waymo, John Cadiz Klemack reports on Today in LA on Tuesday, June 11, 2024.
California already has some self-driving car regulations in place, including SB 1298, signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 2012, which gives the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the authority to regulate the testing and deployment of self-driving cars.
Additionally, in 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission launched two AV pilot programs that allow AVs to operate, provided they are permitted by the DMV and the vehicles comply with DMV regulations.