ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Brand new autonomous vehicles will soon make their debut in Atlanta.
Uber and Lyft both having plans to deploy driverless cars in the city next year. After talking to local leaders, however, it’s became apparent that these futuristic vehicles will be on our roads without many rules.
The state of Georgia has little to no regulation over autonomous vehicles. Atlanta city councilmember and transportation committee chairman Byron Amos said the rules in Georgia will be made up by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, state regulators and city ordinances.
“It will just add another opportunity for someone to be able to move around our great city,” Amos said.
Others are skeptical.
“Traffic is already bad enough. If we’re unleashing a fleet of driverless cars on the metro, we’re going to want to be sure that the company’s trying to do this are working in conjunction with [the Georgia Department of Transportation], to make sure that we can handle the excess capacity,” State Sen. Josh McLaurin said. “People want convenience, certainly. But they also want to be sure they’re safe. That there’s no margin of error, before they trust their lives with these vehicles.”
Samantha Frangi, who bikes around Atlanta, expressed concern about the driverless cars’ ability to share the road.
“Relying on a computer to make sure that people are getting around safely, where we don’t know what’s going to happen in front of us, makes me very nervous,” she said,
Since 2019, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona had a combined 929 crashes involving driverless cars.
Lyft, who’s working with company May Mobility to bring driverless cars to Atlanta, said the cars will be “as simple and intuitive as any other Lyft mode.”
At this time, there’s no timetable on when we could see road regulations put in place here in Georgia.
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