Texas authorities are ready to treat self-driving cars just as they would a late model Honda Civic driven by an old school human.
A new Texas law, which Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign soon, is the most formal sign yet that Texas is open for experimentation with autonomous vehicles. Already, Austin and Dallas have been the sites of self-driving car tests. But SB 2205 takes those local agreements farther by opening all state highways to cars driven by software.
The law simply requires autonomous cars to be capable of complying with traffic laws, be registered and titled and to have liability insurance. The only thing that differs from the laws for human drivers is that autonomous cars have to have recording devices that log speed, location and braking performance.
Few laws have cruised through the statehouse so swiftly. A Senate committee approved it in a 9-0 vote. A House committee voted 10-1 in favor. Then the full Senate rubber-stamped it with a 31-0 vote and the House waved it along in a 137-1 vote.
So, this is all peachy for fans of self-driving cars. But, while Austin was one of the first cities where Google was testing self-driving cars, the rest of the country is catching up by also passing laws that open the door to robotic drivers. Nearby Arizona, for example, is home to self-driving tests by GM and Uber -- plus the first public testing of Waymo's autonomous vehicles (see video below).
Since 2012, at least 41 states considered some kind of new laws related to self-driving cars. And 18 states have passed some kind of legislation, typically paving the way for the cars to operate in some capacity, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. (You can get details on each state's laws here.)
