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July 10—They can overtake you on some of the state’s busiest roads: autonomous cars capable of driving with little or no human intervention.
The days of completely driverless cars are yet to come, experts say, but some New Mexico corporations are testing such cars with drivers behind the wheel under a new state law.
House Bill 270, passed by lawmakers in the normal 2021 referendum and signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, is the first step toward legalizing the potential manufacture and use of autonomous vehicles, said Rep. Patti Lundstrom, D-Gallup. of the sponsors of HB 270.
She told members of the interim legislative subcommittee on transportation infrastructure revenue last week that ultimately, self-driving cars can simply move goods in the event of supply chain issues, which happened in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is the wave of the future,” Lundstrom said, adding that the desire to upgrade broadband to run autonomous vehicle systems “is going to cost a lot of money, I think. “
Some corporations were testing driverless cars before the law went into effect, he said. Now, they must notify the state Department of Transportation five days before any trial.
Cars can simply create a new industry with new jobs, state Department of Transportation officials told subcommittee members.
Autonomous cars use a combination of sensors and software to drive and navigate.
There are five degrees of autonomous vehicles. At the first level, the maximum basic, a user drives the vehicle, but the automated formula is to assist in minor actions.
At point 2, the car can perform more driving purposes with a user who tracks progress and makes the most of time.
The automated formula can take over much of the driving procedure at Level 3, with the user occupying the driver’s seat supervising.
The car can operate only in some point four environments, but the motive force will need to be provided and be in a position to take over if necessary.
Level five is, in fact, autonomous, as the car can drive alone without anyone on board.
The subcommittee’s discussion came just weeks after a study found that automakers had reported nearly 400 injuries from vehicles equipped with partially automated motive force assistance systems over a 10-month period, from July 2021 to
May 2022.
Charles Remkes, head of intelligent transportation systems operations at the state Department of Transportation, said he was only aware of two injuries related to autonomous vehicles in New Mexico, two minor events that left no one injured.
Remkes said some testing of level four autonomous cars is underway on national roads, but no self-driving car maker is in a position to move to level 5.
One of the most demanding situations that evaluators encounter are autonomous cars that recognize and navigate areas of structure. This is because cars can be programmed to read warning signs and traffic lights, but also human hand signals.
There will be other challenges, he and some committee lawmakers said, from regulating the use of driverless cars to figuring out how to adapt cars to local, tribal and rural streets, especially dirt roads.
Jerry P. Valdez, executive director of the Department of Transportation, said it’s very likely that most self-driving cars will be electric.
Some proponents of self-driving cars say those cars can help reduce traffic injuries involving distracted or distracted drivers. A 2020 report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said this would account for about 34 percent of all car and truck injuries.
“In Mallorca, we would be safer in autonomous cars than we have lately,” joked Rep. Debra Sariñana, D-Albuquerque.