Advocates urge New Mexico lawmakers to enact stricter regulations on automated commercial vehicles

Advocates on Friday urged New Mexico lawmakers to join a handful of states that have passed public safety regulations for self-driving commercial vehicles. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 1,199 automated vehicle crashes nationwide in the past year. Driving systems that provide both automated speed and steering input but require a human driver were involved in 1,857 crashes. In total, 16 of the reported crashes occurred in New Mexico.

Daniel Cook, a business agent with Teamsters Local 492 in Albuquerque, began his career driving commercial vehicles in Alaska at age 19. He highlighted to the interim Transportation Infrastructure Revenue Subcommittee last Friday an incident in Arizona in which a semi-truck equipped with automated systems and two safety drivers at the helm veered into a concrete barrier on a highway. 

Cook told lawmakers he drove commercial semi-trucks with similar technology and that the automated system in his vehicle would “read a speed limit sign and it would slam on the brakes,” or, in another instance, dangerously stop the vehicle after falsely detecting a median as a stationary object.

“These systems do affect the way we drive currently and they are not ready to go at this point,” Cook said.

Six states — Hawaii, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas — passed self-driving vehicle regulations that require companies to obtain permits and state authorization to test or operate automated vehicles. New Mexico’s current statute allows driverless vehicle corporations to test on public roads if they notify the New Mexico Department of Transportation five days in advance and the vehicle complies with New Mexico traffic laws.

According to the advocates’ presentation, the current law does not require companies operating driverless vehicles to obtain a state permit, submit safety data or demonstrate that the driverless system has passed any preliminary safety testing.

“I didn’t realize our laws are so lacking,” Rep. Joy Garratt (D-Albuquerque) said. She called regulations — like requiring companies testing driverless semi-trucks to obtain a state permit that can be revoked for safety concerns — “common sense.”

Rep. Rod Montoya (R-Farmington) said autonomous vehicles will help fill gaps in commercial trucking shortages and New Mexico should not fully restrict them, but expressed support that something needs to be done.

“There is a need over time for this, but the idea of us being the guinea pigs is not something I’m looking forward to,” Montoya said. “There is a real risk here. We need to put some guardrails.”