| After the CPUC voted to approve the self-driving expansion, the same people that tried to block self-driving cars there pulled two regulatory levers. First, the California DMV, with result seen here. The incident that triggered this event happened when a human driver, who is still at large, hit a pedestrian who flew into the path of the Cruise vehicle. The car executed a maneuver to pull over for a safety stop, but failed to recognize the woman who was dragged some distance. Second, they reached to the Federal agencies via Nancy Pelosi’s office, with primary focus being the NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The request was to gather data, which given the friendly posture of the NHTSA at this time will likely result in the opening of an investigation. Both of these moves have some bite. The California DMV can suspend licensure as happened here. But they’re fairly straight-shooter civil service types in the end, and they’ll eventually clear the vehicles for use. You can see this in part because of the action against Cruise only, rather than Waymo. Some may attribute this to Waymo’s greater political sway in California. But my experience of the products themselves is that Waymo has a higher quality self-driving system. The NHTSA is a bit trickier to predict. The NHTSA’s powers are broad in theory and as granted by statute. They could theoretically issue an order to remove a type of vehicle from the road for imminent threat to public safety. However, their typical modus operandi is to issue recalls and work with the auto companies. They won’t want to test these powers under the current court, so my opinion is that they won’t take much action. |