Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to ban fully self-driving buses

Pennsylvania State Representative Ben Waxman is authoring a bill that would require any transit vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds using an automated driving system to have a licensed driver on board, reports Meir Rinde for BillyPenn at WHYY.

As Rinde explains, Rep. Waxman said the bill would apply to buses and trolley, not the subway or trains. "One of his main concerns is safety, and the potential for a 'catastrophic' technological mishap involving a fully automated bus full of passengers operating in a densely populated city, according to a legislative memo he circulated last month."

While autonomous buses aren't in Philadelphia's immediate future, a few transit authorities are piloting autonomous microtransit shuttles in cities like Jacksonville and Atlanta. However, "A 40-foot bus that traverses a big city every day has to respond to detours and a variety of other situations, unlike a shuttle that sticks to one short route that it has been specifically trained on."

Waxman' bill wouldn't fully ban self-driving buses, and "Its requirement for a human operator on board could still allow transit authorities to test AV technologies, he said, and adopt any that meet the law’s requirements."