This story is republished from NM Political Report, a nonprofit news outlet, as a part of our commitment to bringing you the best in independent news coverage that matters to Albuquerque.
By Blake Gumprecht
Proposed legislation that would impose significant new restrictions and requirements on the operation of driverless vehicles in New Mexico received a rocky reception in its first hearing on Tuesday.
House Bill 148, sponsored by Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, D-Albuquerque, would require a human operator to be present behind the steering wheel and take control of the vehicle in certain circumstances. The operator would be required to have a special endorsement on their driver’s license authorizing them to operate an autonomous vehicle.
The legislation would also prohibit the use of commercial autonomous vehicles on public highways, except for testing, unless approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It would require higher levels of insurance for driverless vehicles.
But the bill faced significant opposition on Tuesday from business and other groups, and many questions from members of the House Transportation, Public Works, and Capital Improvements Committee. Hochman-Vigil temporarily withdrew the bill from consideration so she and the bill’s backers could strengthen it before the committee reconsiders it.
“We will do some more work on the bill,” Hochman-Vigil said. “This is the future. It is coming. That’s why it’s even more important than it’s ever been that the government not only ensure the safety of New Mexicans, but that we get this right.”
The New Mexico Legislature in 2022 enacted its first laws on driverless vehicles, but the new legislation goes much further than those statutes. Those laws did not require a human to be present in fully autonomous vehicles, so long as the vehicle had been fully tested and certification of that testing be submitted to the state Department of Transportation.
HB 148 would require human operators in autonomous vehicles until 2036, when presumably the technology would have advanced sufficiently to no longer require human oversight. Until then, the human operator would be required to take control of the autonomous vehicle to yield to an emergency vehicle or school bus, operate in school and construction zones and when operating in certain types of parking areas.
Business officials and representatives of the autonomous vehicle industry, however, insisted that driverless vehicles have already proven to be safe in millions of miles of testing — safer, they said, than vehicles operated by humans.
Alison Riley, public policy director for the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, said autonomous trucks have been driven 3.8 million miles and have had 76% fewer accidents per mile driven than human-operated vehicles. She said those accidents had resulted in no fatalities.
“Banning autonomous trucks will put New Mexico at a disadvantage compared to neighboring states that are welcoming this technology,” she said.
Autonomous trucks are already being used by oil companies on private oilfield roads in the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico. Texas-based Atlas Energy Solutions began operating such trucks in the state in December, though so far they haven’t operated on public roads.
Those trucks utilize driverless technology developed by Kodiak Robotics, a California based company. Trucks using Kodiak driverless technology are already operating on public roads in Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia.
Daniel Goff, Kodiak’s director of external affairs, said trucks using its technology have driven nearly 4 million miles in the United States, mostly on public roads. He said those trucks have only had “a handful” of minor accidents.
“We never had an incident where the system was at fault,” he said. “We’ve been rear-ended a couple times — minor incidents. This is no longer a science experiment or something on the cutting edge. It’s becoming increasingly normal.”
Others at the hearing cited vastly different statistics about the safety of autonomous vehicles and the results of testing. That prompted some committee members to say they needed more information before they could act on the bill.
Committee members also expressed concern that fully autonomous vehicles, without a human operator present, would not be allowed in New Mexico until 2036. They asked questions about why that date was chosen, but the answers were vague, with expert witnesses saying only that such a long period was necessary to make sure autonomous vehicles could be adequately tested.
“Ten years is a lifetime when it comes to this type of development,” Rep. Patricia A. Lundstrom, D-Gallup, said. “I think that’s way too long. We all want safety. Everybody does. To say that we have a 10-year sunset makes me believe that the states that surround New Mexico would be far more advanced in their technology.”