Illinois state bill would authorize pilot program for self-driving cars in Chicago
Driverless cars are about to get a closer look in Illinois, with a pilot program being pitched to bring them to Cook County for a trial run in the not-too-distant future.
Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) has introduced a bill that would authorize autonomous vehicle pilot programs in three counties, including Cook.
"It would give three counties – Cook County, Sangamon County, and Madison County – the ability to create a three-year pilot where we can have a certain number of these cars on the road, study what happens to them, make sure that they're safe," Buckner said.
Buckner said it's time for Illinois to catch up to other states. At least 29 states have laws on the books to regulate driverless vehicles, but Illinois isn't among them.
Safety is a focal point for a technology some are dubious about.
Josh Witkowski, lobbyist for ABATE Illinois, a motorcyclist rights organization, pointed to a number of autonomous car accidents involving everything from school buses to horses where driverless vehicles failed to handle the unexpected.
"Humans have to pass a driving test before we're allowed on the roadways. These vehicles are asking to for access to the roadways. They're asking to use the driving public as their test rather than being shown safe before they're even on the roadway," he said.
Witkowski and Buckner want legislators to devise a pilot program and legislation that gives the state the flexibility to modify and regulate the industry as problems emerge, like has occurred in Texas, where 24 times in the last year, self-driving Waymo robotaxis failed to yield to school buses in Austin.
Waymo chief safety officer Mauricio Peña was questioned about those issues on Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
"We are working with the Austin Independent School District to collect data on different lighting patterns and different conditions, and we're continuously learning and improving, because our work on safety is never done," he said.
In Illinois, the debate is just beginning for a technology that could get a closer inspection this spring in Springfield.
"Allowing these folks to do a test run to see if this makes sense for Illinois," Buckner said.
Buckner said there's no race to get a self-driving vehicle pilot program up and running, but it's time to begin talks with both sunlight and scrutiny.
It's unclear how soon Cook County could start testing autonomous vehicles, but Buckner hopes to get some traction from his fellow state lawmakers during the spring session in Springfield.
If the pilot program is successful, the Illinois Department of Transportation could legalize self-driving cars statewide within three years.
The bill still has a long way to go before becoming law as it has yet to even be assigned to a committee, and previous attempts to legalize self-driving cars in Illinois have gone nowhere.