PennDOT seeks comments on proposed guidelines for self-driving vehicles

New proposed guidelines in Pennsylvania for self-driving vehicles would allow them to operate without an emergency driver in the vehicle as long as the vehicles meet certain specifications.

The state Department of Transportation released an 11-page draft last week of guidelines prepared by the state’s Highly Automated Vehicle Advisory Committee. The agency will accept comments until 5 p.m. Thursday and review the comments with the committee to see if there should be any changes to the proposed guidelines.

Once the guidelines are approved, they will take effect immediately.

The proposed guidelines are a follow up to the state Legislature approving Act 130 in 2022 to govern the use of self-driving vehicles. The state has been a leader in developing the rules of the road for self-driving vehicles because a lot of early technology development and testing for those vehicles occurred in the Pittsburgh area, first with Uber and continuing with companies such as Aurora and Motional.

The committee began its work in 2018, when the push for self-driving vehicles began and former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto welcomed developers to the city to work with industry leaders at Carnegie Mellon University. Over the years, PennDOT used a series of voluntary guidelines to oversee the industry as it worked with developers on a formal set of operating rules.

Now, these guidelines are under review before implementation.

In addition to allowing vehicles without safety drivers, another difference is the guidelines require self-driving vehicles to be clearly marked so that other drivers and emergency responders know there is no one in the vehicle responsible for controlling it.

The guidelines also require developers to collect and report extensive data about every hour vehicles spend on the road without a driver. Accidents and other emergency situations must be reported immediately.

Once the guidelines are in place, developers will have to comply with them or risk having their operating certificates revoked.

Although Pennsylvania has been among the leaders in developing operating technology and guidelines, other states such as Arizona, Nevada and Texas already have tandem trucks and cars operating without drivers on their roads. That’s because they have long stretches of mostly straight, flat roads and a year-around warm climate compared to the hills, curves and winter weather here.

As a result, Pennsylvania has watched what has happened in other states and learned from their efforts. Now, it’s ready to expand the use of self-driving vehicles here.