Legislators are considering limits on self-driving or autonomous vehicles.
Self-driving commercial vehicles would need to have a human who’s licensed to drive the vehicle inside under a bill being considered in the Iowa House.
Tamara Marcus, a lobbyist for Teamsters Local 238 which represents commercial drivers, said the bill is important because driverless vehicles have been involved in accidents. “Our position is that the technology just isn’t there yet to safely have these commercial vehicles on the roads,” she said, “and so this is really a public safety issue.”
A representative for, the organization that represents motorcyclists, said the group is concerned that autonomous vehicles aren’t recognizing motorcycles on the road. A lobbyist for car makers said the federal government, not the state, should set standards for these vehicles.
“We think the future in some circumstances will involve places you go without a human driver involved. Uber and Tesla and a bunch of different companies are already testing this out in certain places,” said Michael Triplett, a lobbyist for the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
A separate bill would place liability for accidents and damage with the owner of a driverless car.
(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)