New CA law would punish scofflaw companies for self-driving vehicles

San Fran kicked Uber out of town with its driverless cars.  A town that wants to be a tech center for the world was afraid of being the tech center.  Phoenix now has the cars—and a leg up on getting California companies to move.  High taxes, home, energy and water costs, Nanny State regulations-and a government that slows down growth of businesses—lots of reasons to find a Free State to run a business.  San Fran has shown its real colors—anti-business, anti-technology.

““I’m a big fan of seeing this technology developed in San Francisco, and California,” Ting told the San Francisco Examiner. “But we owe it to every driver, pedestrian and biker to have safe cars on our roads.”

Lee said in a statement, “I look forward to collaborating with all parties to ensure the safety of San Franciscans as we continue to work with companies who bring innovative, new ideas to our city.”
He will be negotiating with himself—responsible tech firms will use this lesson as a reminder that California does not mean business.  Why is Texas growing?  Because of California Democrats.

New CA law would punish scofflaw companies for self-driving vehicles

By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, SF Examiner,  1/5/17

That may be good news for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who asked the San Francisco Police Department what he could do to stop Uber from unlawfully testing its self-driving cars on city streets with passengers, a service the company launched Dec. 14.

A video first published by the San Francisco Examiner showed self-driving Uber vehicles running red lights.

Still, the mayor’s hands were tied.

Despite Uber operating without DMV permits, SFPD could not impound the cars, and Lee had no powers to stop them. Lee met with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to no avail.

Now, Ting’s bill may expand powers for government to stop self-driving scofflaws.

“I’m a big fan of seeing this technology developed in San Francisco, and California,” Ting told the San Francisco Examiner. “But we owe it to every driver, pedestrian and biker to have safe cars on our roads.”

Lee said in a statement, “I look forward to collaborating with all parties to ensure the safety of San Franciscans as we continue to work with companies who bring innovative, new ideas to our city.”
Uber did not respond to requests for comment.

Assembly Bill 87 is three-pronged and would codify DMV’s actions to repeal registration of the scofflaw self-driving cars, legally allowing cities to impound those cars. It would also allow DMV to fine companies $25,000 per vehicle, per day for self-driving cars operating without proper permits, as Uber allegedly did. The bill would also punish companies that operate self-driving cars without permits by revoking their permit eligibility for up to two years.

So far, 20 companies have received the $150 permits to operate autonomous vehicles in California.
That shows the permits are “not a barrier to these companies,” Ting said.

Uber has since sent its self-driving vehicle fleet to Arizona.

Uber maintains the self-driving vehicles that ran red lights were driven by people, not by its technology.