In the US, drones were allowed to move on public roads without people watching

This, however, is not about the entire United States, butonly about the state of Florida, where the local governor, Ron Landings, signed a law that removes most of the obstacles to technology companies who want to bring truly autonomous vehicles to real road conditions and not to landfills. Starting July 1, 2019, automakers and technology companies will be allowed to test unmanned vehicles on public roads without the need for control from a person who is ready to take control of the vehicle at any time.

What is the future for unmanned vehicles?

According to Desantis, "the new law makes the state of Florida the most open to unmanned vehicles."

As noted, the only condition isPrototype compliance with the basic rules of road safety and the availability of insurance. So, if there is an operator in the tested car, then in case of malfunctions the car can continue driving by turning on the emergency lights. If a malfunction occurs at a time when there is no person in the cabin, the car should be able to independently and safely drive off to the curb and stop.

It is also important to note that the law also clearlyit is written that it is the unmanned control system itself that will be considered the operator of the vehicle when it is activated, even if at that moment there will be passengers inside the car. Thus, the state imposes increased responsibility on the system manufacturer in case of an accident. Thus, if something goes wrong, as it was, for example, in the incident of 2018, when the Uber unmanned car hit a pedestrian to death, the manufacturer would not be able to get away from the responsibility with words like “our driver was just not paying attention.”

At the same time, as reported by Digital Trends, fordrone canceled some traffic rules in force in florida. For example, their operators can use smartphones and even watch TV shows, while drivers of normal cars are threatened with serious fines and even imprisonment.

According to local lawmakers, such exceptions will help technology companies to quickly fulfill their promises to bring the technology of unmanned vehicles to the mass market.

A law passed in Florida became a precedent notonly in the USA. It seems, journalists say, this is the first legal document in the world that allows robots to independently drive vehicles. But this is actually not the case. For example, not so long ago, we reported that the commercial operation of fully autonomous T-pod trucks from Einride began in Sweden. They will move between distribution terminals and warehouses of the company logistics company DB Schenker. Permission to operate trucks issued until December 31, 2020.

You can discuss the news in our Telegram-chat.