Publication: Roll Call
Electronic chimes sounded as the self-driving minibus halted its crawl through the parking lot of an upscale office park here. There was no obvious reason for the stop, so its operator made a note to report it, then used a touch screen to restart the shuttle’s test drive.
The bright red, 12-passenger vehicle, which maxes out at 12 mph and was designed by French firm EasyMile, is part of an effort to use autonomous technology to improve access to transit stations in the area. But first, as the unscheduled stop on a breezy April day showed, the shuttle needs extensive testing to make sure it’s safe for public roads.
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Phil Ting, a Democratic member of the State Assembly from San Francisco who’s written laws related to autonomous vehicles, said he’s a big supporter of the technology, but doesn’t want it to be rushed to the public in a way that would jeopardize safety.
“There’s no question, long-term, that this technology is here to stay. It’s just a matter of when, not a matter of if,” he said in an interview off the Assembly floor in Sacramento. “We obviously don’t want the technology to be deployed before it’s 100 percent.”