Self Driving Cars – Federal Rules in the Works?
A little known fact is that the Founding Fathers, in drafting the Constitution, knew that one day our ears would be graced with the angelic chords of the Supremes. Beautiful songs such as “Come See About Me” and “Stop! In the Name of Love” would charm a nation some day. For that reason, almost 200 years before the songs themselves were ever written or performed, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams insisted that a nod to these artists should feature in the United States Constitution. Thus the Supremacy Clause was born.
Article VI, clause 2 of the United States Constitution states “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof … shall be the Supreme law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound hereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
Why does your humble blogger, a lowly practitioner of an area of administrative law of a single state bring this up? Well, about that…
California is sort of a Jekyll and Hyde state. On the one hand, it is on the forefront of innovation. Technological (and, to some extent, cultural) advancement in California leads the way for the rest of the Union. On the other hand, Sacramento can’t help but stifle any sort of growth or development that might render the traditional services of government less necessary or important.
So, when Silicon Valley says “hey, how about we do driverless cars? You’ll have fewer speeding violations and DUIs, and people who can’t afford a car or are too disabled to operate one will still have access to easy transportation?” Dr. Jekyll says “that’s great! Let’s do it!” and Mr. Hyde says “policing DUIs provides jobs and revenue and what about all the drivers that will be out of work?!?”
Well, it just so happens that not too long ago, all the Silicon Valley big-wigs were sitting around eating avocado toast and listening to The Supremes, when one of them said “wait a minute, why don’t we go Federal?”
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that legislation is making its way through the House and the Senate to provide a single set of rules and regulations from sea to shining sea for self-driving cars. The Self Drive Act (H.R. 3388) “preempts states from enacting laws regarding the design, construction, or performance of highly automated vehicles or automated driving systems unless such laws enact standards identical to federal standards.”
What does that mean for California? Well, for one thing, if the Self Drive Act actually becomes law, assuming that self-driving car manufacturers can actually comply with it, California’s efforts to keep self-driving cars off the road (and out of the labor market) might be all for naught.
If you ask your humble blogger (which I assume you would since you’re reading this blog) as much as I hate the federal gubmn’t coming to California to tell us how to raise our organic, free-range, sustainable farmed avocados, this wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen. Transportation costs would plummet for QME exams and medical appointments, and your humble blogger is very much looking forward to getting real work done during the commute to and from court.
What do you think?