Cities want to put the boot on robotaxis

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Cities want to put the boot on robotaxis

Frustrated by federal gridlock, cities and states across the political spectrum are taking matters into their own hands to rein in autonomous vehicles.

由于对联邦层面的僵局感到沮丧，各地的城市和州政府正跨越政治分歧，采取行动以管控自动驾驶汽车。

The first state to pass a law legalizing self-driving cars operating on public roads was Nevada in June 2011 — long before such vehicles were operating on public roads. This was three years before the introduction of Tesla’s Autopilot, five years before Waymo spun out of the Google self-driving car project, and seven years before the first commercial robotaxi service got underway.

内华达州是第一个在2011年6月通过法律，允许自动驾驶汽车在公共道路上行驶的州，这远早于此类车辆真正上路的时间。这比特斯拉Autopilot的推出早了三年，比Waymo从谷歌自动驾驶项目中独立出来早了五年，也比首个商业化自动驾驶出租车服务启动早了七年。

Back then, many states and cities welcomed self-driving cars with open arms, eager to be seen as future-forward and pro-innovation. They had no inkling that over a decade later, they would be back at the drafting table crafting legislation to rein in these same self-driving cars.

当时，许多州和城市张开双臂欢迎自动驾驶汽车，渴望被视为具有前瞻性和支持创新的典范。他们当时完全没有想到，十多年后，他们会重新回到起草桌前，制定法律来约束这些曾经被欢迎的自动驾驶汽车。

While federal regulators scramble to establish safety standards, legislation that would establish rules for autonomous vehicles remains stalled in Congress — and has been for years. Washington’s paralysis has left local lawmakers to create their own playbooks to ensure robot cars at least follow some rules of the road.

尽管联邦监管机构正忙于建立安全标准，但旨在为自动驾驶汽车制定规则的立法在国会中仍处于停滞状态，且这种情况已持续多年。华盛顿的瘫痪迫使地方立法者制定自己的方案，以确保自动驾驶汽车至少能遵守一些道路规则。

The result is a patchwork of rules and regulations for robotaxi operators to follow — an outcome that many industry leaders were desperate to avoid. And as robotaxis continue to spread to new cities, local officials are discovering more unintended consequences of their new robot residents, leading to even more rules and an ever-growing patchwork of complexity for operators.

其结果是自动驾驶出租车运营商必须面对一套零散的规则和条例，这是许多行业领袖极力想要避免的局面。随着自动驾驶出租车不断扩展到新的城市，地方官员发现了这些“机器人居民”带来的更多意想不到的后果，这导致了更多的规则出台，也让运营商面临着日益复杂的监管环境。

Municipalities generally lack authority over vehicle manufacturing standards, but they hold broad authority over street operations. As such, they’ve been using that authority to pass their own laws governing the rollout of robotaxis. There’s not an exact count of the number of local regulations and ordinances that have been passed since robotaxis have gone mainstream.

市政当局通常对车辆制造标准缺乏管辖权，但他们在街道运营方面拥有广泛的权力。因此，他们一直在利用这种权力通过自己的法律来管理自动驾驶出租车的投放。自自动驾驶出租车成为主流以来，通过的地方性法规和条例数量尚无确切统计。

It’s not just cities or blue states taking a harder line, either — the pushback is blurring traditional political lines. It used to be the case that Republicans were seen as more welcoming of autonomous vehicles, while Democrats were seen as more skeptical. This has certainly borne out in a handful of Democrat-led cities, but now even some red states are considering tightening the leash, including Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Iowa.

采取强硬立场的不仅仅是城市或“蓝州”，这种抵制情绪正在模糊传统的政治界限。过去，共和党人通常被认为更欢迎自动驾驶汽车，而民主党人则持怀疑态度。这一点在一些由民主党领导的城市中确实得到了印证，但现在连一些“红州”也在考虑收紧监管，包括肯塔基州、俄克拉荷马州、南达科他州和爱荷华州。

As the local debate over autonomous vehicles intensifies, AV developers are increasingly looking overseas as a potential hedge to more obstacles in cropping up in the US. Waymo is planning to expand its service in London, Tokyo, and Munich. Uber is teeing up vehicles for Manchester, Madrid, and Dubai. If the US is getting too complex and over-regulated, perhaps they can find friendlier reception elsewhere.

随着关于自动驾驶汽车的地方性辩论愈演愈烈，自动驾驶开发商正越来越多地将目光投向海外，以作为应对美国国内不断增加的障碍的潜在对冲手段。Waymo计划在伦敦、东京和慕尼黑扩展服务。Uber也正在为曼彻斯特、马德里和迪拜准备车辆。如果美国的环境变得过于复杂且监管过度，或许他们能在其他地方找到更友好的接待。