By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Believe it or not, the debate about whether driverless cars can take to Illinois’ roads is happening at the statehouse.
State Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, said his bill will allow autonomous vehicles on Illinois highways and allow for greater real-world testing of driverless car technology.
General Motors General Counsel Paul Hemmersbaugh said GM is already testing driverless cars in a few states, but they want to open up the Illinois marketplace.
“Illinois has a chance to be a leader here in this technology and this deployment and all of the sort of internet things that comes with it,” Hemmersbaugh said.
However, Todd Vandermyde with motorcyclist lobby ABATE said they don’t think the technology is ready to start seeing motorcycles.
“We already have a problem with distracted drivers and just this past week we saw an autonomous vehicle rear end a motorcycle police officer in Arizona,” Vandermyde said.
Hemmersbaugh said that’s why they need to be allowed to test driverless cars on the roads.
“What we’re doing is we’re testing and we will test every scenario, and we will not deploy these until we’re comfortable and confident that these are as safe or safer than a human driver and that’s with respect to motorcycles, with respect to other motorists, with respect to pedestrians,” Hemmersbaugh said.
Hemmersbaugh acknowledged the redundant technology systems for driverless cars are still being worked on, especially in snowy conditions, but the law must change to allow for more testing on public roads.
Vandermyde didn’t like that idea.
“At the potential cost of running over other motorists? I’m not sure that’s a trade off,” he said.
The bill passed committee unanimously.
