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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

> In California an autonomous vehicle is defined as having the capability of driving “without the active physical control or monitoring” of a person. The state allows for the driving and testing of autonomous vehicles on public roadways, but requires the operator to obtain a $150 permit to drive in the state.

16 test vehicles. $150 for each permit. Is the refusal to register some kind of moral stance?

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Another HN thread[1] revealed that the permit not only costs $150, but also mandates that Uber report accidents. (And other stuff?)

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13198277

I believe self-reporting of accidents was a regulation that Google had to operate under. Funny enough, I just checked where they used to have their monthly accident reports but now it's just a Waymo landing page:

https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/reports/

Internet archive snapshot:

https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20161011014050/https://www....

Sample report (PDF) https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20161213211933/http://stati...

The official accident reports are still available, as they always have been, on the California DMV's website.[1]

I remember only a few months ago folks were holding up Google as the model for SDC transparency.[2] How times change!

[1] https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/auton...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12082893

Waymo is subject to the same reporting requirements as everyone else.

Google's reports will likely be transferred to waymo.com site soon enough, and new ones will appear in due time.

They don't want to publicly disclose accidents and the bad press that it warrants.

A naive reading of that law excludes from the definition of autonomous vehicle any car that

1. is monitored, and

2. is under the physical control of a [natural] person.

A driver is in front of the steering wheel at all times, ready to take over.

What am I missing? I haven't deconstructed the statute, it could be plenty.

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