A California agency tasked with overseeing the regulation of self-driving vehicles has announced the addition of new reporting requirements for certain scenarios, following increased public and government scrutiny surrounding self-driving vehicles in recent years.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) shared a press release This week details new reporting requirements for road accidents, including collisions, non-collisions that result in stalled vehicles, and more. The decision follows a long-standing conversation within the agency about incident reporting, following an accident with a robotaxi last fall that involved a pedestrian.
“Today’s decision will provide important information about how to keep passengers safe during their journeys as we enter a new era of broader use of autonomous vehicles,” said CPUC Commissioner Matthew Baker. “These new reporting requirements are drawn from millions of miles of experience over the past several years and provide a strong foundation for future updates to CPUC regulations.”
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More specifically, the new reporting guidelines require operators of autonomous vehicles to report “stall events,” in which autonomous vehicles malfunction during operation. Companies will also be required to report flight-level accident reports that contain specific details about collisions, as well as non-collisions such as stops or traffic safety violations.
The agency also says it began developing a framework for increased reporting procedures last May, after the commissioner filed a request to formally define the new requirements. The CPUC also works closely with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to regulate the state’s self-driving laws, with the former agency specifically responsible for ensuring occupant safety and the latter overseeing vehicle safety and operational safety.
The new requirements follow an accident in San Francisco with a robotaxi owned by General Motors (GM)’s Cruise business last October, in which a self-driving vehicle struck a pedestrian who was struck by another vehicle driven by a human driver. Upon collision with a pedestrian, the robot attempted to stop as an emergency response, although it instead continued to drag and stabilize the pedestrian until authorities arrived.
After the incident, California regulators claimed that Cruise “omitted” and “misrepresented” certain details about the robotaxi’s response, and the Consumer Protection Commission required the General Motors-owned company to pay the maximum penalty for delays in reporting some details. While that fee was only $112,500, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also ordered Cruise to pay $1.5 million in September for failing to disclose certain aspects of the crash.
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