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Self-driving wars are heating up between Arizona and California because Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, issued a new executive order on Thursday that will make full driverless cars without anyone behind the wheel to be perfectly legal to operate on public roads. The only condition is that the vehicles must follow all traffic laws and rules for drivers and cars.
“As technology advances, our policies and priorities must adapt to remain competitive in today’s economy,” Ducey said in a statement. “This executive order embraces new technologies by creating an environment that supports autonomous vehicle innovation and maintains a focus on public safety.”
Talking about Arizona, there’s over 600 self-driving cars operating on the public road today in the state. Both Intel and Waymo have been testing their autonomous cars in Chandler, while GM and Uber’s vehicles are seen on the road and around Scottsdale. Arizona prides itself as “being part of the innovation and trying to stay out of the way of innovation,” said Kevin Beisty, deputy director for policy at the Arizona Department of Transportation, at a public forum in Washington, DC, on Thursday.
Ducey’s new move comes a few days after California announced that it would permit fully driverless cars to operate on its road starting April. Previous to these change, a safety driver was mandatory to be behind the wheel during autonomous testing.
