Robot cars are causing safety concerns in Central Texas

There have been 40 complaints logged with Austin’s Transportation Public Works Department since July, including close calls with residents and first responders. Additionally, in the last few weeks autonomous vehicles have encroached on fire trucks in Austin and turned against a red light, almost hitting pedestrians as an APD officer worked a fundraising walk in downtown Austin, per the report. 

It’s an issue because, per state law, local municipalities cannot regulate autonomous vehicles.

“A political subdivision of this state or a state agency may not impose a franchise or other regulation related to the operation of an automated motor vehicle or automated driving system,” the law reads.

Instead, cities like Austin can only work with the autonomous vehicle companies, and hope that the companies respond in goodwill. That’s just what Austin did, forming the City AV Safety Task Force, a collaboration between Austin Police Department, Austin Fire, and Austin Travis County Emergency Medical Services to monitor how autonomous vehicles are being used in the city.

The relationship got off to a rocky start. 

“Trying to communicate with you is … problematic and frankly you don’t respond in a timely manner,” wrote Matthew McElearney, AFD special operations training captain, to an investigations manager at Cruise in late August.

Possibly as a response to the complaint, Cruise approached the fire, police, and emergency medical training departments in late September, in an effort to help the departments familiarize themselves with the autonomous vehicles, per Axios.

A spokesperson with Cruise says that the AVs will be re-routed away from one fire station in the city, and that they are not meant to block access to or from fire or police stations, per the report.

Whether or not the fixes work is yet to be seen, as this is likely just the infancy stage of autonomous vehicles in Central Texas.