Autonomous Vehicles Bill in Kentucky Becomes Law
On April 5th, Governor Andy Beshear vetoed the “AN ACT relating to autonomous vehicles”, but the state House and Senate obtained enough votes each to override the veto, and as such the Bill to allow autonomous driving on Kentucky’s roadways will become a law.
Details
When Governor Beshear vetoed the Bill, he argued that there needed to be more testing of the technology before making it the law of the state.
“Opening Kentucky’s highways and roads to fully autonomous vehicles should occur only after careful study and consideration and an extensive testing period with a licensed human being behind the wheel, which is what other states have done before passing such laws…[it does not] fully address questions about the safety and security of autonomous vehicles, nor does it implement a testing period that would require a licensed human driver to be behind the wheel.”
Both the House and Senate said there is no time quite like the present to get the ball rolling on improving this technology, and as such passed it regardless of the governor’s qualms.
In short, the law makes it so that a fully autonomous commercial vehicle weighing over 62,000 must have a human driver that can intervene at any time until August 1st, 2026, upon which the requirement for the human element will be eliminated.
Each fully autonomous truck driving under the law must have $1 million in insurance coverage to cover liability for injury and property damage.
Conclusion
All of this raises the same question that Governor Beshear asked when he vetoed the Bill, which is, are heavy-duty commercial vehicles ready to travel autonomously so soon? There is room to argue the technology is currently apt for long stretches of highway with minimal, gradual turns, but it still may be a while before the onboard computers are able to handle more complex situations such as road work. The Kentucky legislature seems to have voted to make the state the testing ground for how far autonomous trucking has come, and we will see the results come August of 2026.
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