$5M liability required for self-driving cars in Seattle

(T.Center Square) – Seattle City Council and Seattle Transportation Authority Authorized program This will require all companies to register with the city before testing self-driving cars.

The program requires all participating companies to share information about their driver training programs with the city along with accident or incident data and proof of insurance.

This last requirement is actually covered by state law and comes at a relatively high cost.

Around RCW 46.30.050 Companies testing self-driving cars “must have a comprehensive liability policy of at least $5 million per occurrence.” These stakes are in contrast to $25,000. state minimum For normal drivers.

The program also requires advance notice of testing, a clearly visible company logo on the outside of the autonomous test vehicle, and company contact information filed with the city and available to the public.

Washington State Licensing Authority list Only three companies are currently registered in the state: NVIDIA Corporation, Waymo LLC, and Zoox, Inc.

The latter two are subsidiaries of household names.

Waymo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Zoox is got Summer 2020 on Amazon.

Amazon's Zoox, a local self-driving team, sees testing vehicles at Rain City as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

"Seattle rains more often than San Francisco," Amazon's Zoox said. statement“Human drivers rely on windshield wipers and defrosters to drive safely in bad weather. When it rains, we have more opportunities to collect data and validate these innovations.” “Smooth seas have never made skilled sailors, which is exactly the same principle of our technology,” said Kai Wang, Director of Forecasting at Zoox. “The challenges in Seattle allow us to hone our software stack and ultimately improve how our vehicles work.”