Plans to bring self-driving autonomous vehicles to D.C. may be taking a detour.
News4 has learned a key report that would pave the way for the cars to start service is being held back.
Waymo vehicles have been tested on the streets of D.C. – with a driver as backup – for more than a year now. The company was hoping to start picking up passengers without a driver by next year. But now plans are stuck in neutral.
D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, told News4 a report that would allow his committee to advance the autonomous testing and then potentially start passenger service is nowhere to be found.
“For the past year, we have been targeting sometime around now, this fall, getting that type of report and review from DDOT, from the mayor’s office, and we were told about a month ago that it’s not coming,” Allen said.
Allen says the reason D.C.’s Department of Transportation gave him for the lack of a report is federal budget cuts to the District that froze the ability to produce the report.
DDOT said it will continue work to draft the autonomous vehicle report and explore deployment considerations as the process moves forward. But they gave no timetable.
Allen said there are still many other issues that have to be figured out before Waymo cars can start full operations.
“If there is a collision – and there likely will be some collision somewhere – how do you hold someone liable and who do you hold liable for the damages to help make someone right? Is it the owner of the vehicle? Is it the computer coder? Is it the manufacturer?” he asked.
Waymo has been investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety administration for a number of minor collisions that potentially violated traffic safety laws. NHTSA has since closed those investigations.
Waymo declined News4’s request for an interview but said us their safe driving record, with more than 10 million rides serviced, speaks for itself.
Despite potential roadblocks, Allen said he believes autonomous vehicles without drivers will eventually operate on D.C. streets.
“I do. I think that’s where we are seeing other cities and other places move. Do I think it’s going to take over the entire fleet of vehicles? I don’t,” he said.
Waymo is currently picking up passengers in L.A., Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin.
For now, if you were hoping to catch your own autonomous ride in D.C., you’ll have to wait a while longer for your trip.
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