A new bill moving through the Ohio Statehouse would make the owner of a driverless car responsible for traffic violations whenever no human is behind the wheel, and it would require ride companies to carry at least $1 million in insurance while carrying passengers. House Bill 1034 would also establish statewide rules for driverless cars across Ohio, a state where the technology is already being tested on public roads.
State Rep. Adam Holmes introduced the bill last week, according to Cleveland 19 News. Holmes said Ohio should put operational protections and a regulatory framework in place before driverless cars become more common and demand for them grows. He described House Bill 1034 as a preparation-type bill, and as of the station's report, it had not yet received a vote.
Owners on the Hook, Insurers Required to Pay Up
Under the bill, the car's owner — not necessarily whoever or whatever is operating the vehicle — would bear responsibility for traffic violations when no human is driving. Ride companies offering trips in autonomous vehicles would be required to carry at least $1 million in insurance while passengers are aboard, per the same report from Cleveland 19 News.
Ohio isn't starting from scratch. The state's DriveOhio program already tests self-driving technology, including driverless semi trucks, the station notes. DriveOhio is an office within the Ohio Department of Transportation that leads autonomous-vehicle testing statewide, according to Signal Ohio. In 2022, a fleet of both trucks and cars covered thousands of miles of rural, winding roads in Vinton and Athens counties using automated and platooning technologies, the outlet reports.
Trucks Outperformed Cars in Ohio Testing
That 2022 trial didn't go uniformly well. A state report of company data found more success with the trucks than the cars, which needed more frequent driver engagements and struggled to predict other drivers' behavior, Signal Ohio reports. Separately, an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety analysis using Waymo's self-reported data found its self-driving vehicles crashed at a 68% lower rate than human drivers operating in the same areas, according to the same account.
Holmes pointed to weather as a specific unknown for Ohio. “We don't really have a lot of data on how they might work in Ohio snow and rain,” he said, according to Cleveland 19 News. He added that Ohio winter conditions may pose a problem for driverless cars, and said he understands the concerns people have. Holmes said he wouldn't want anyone to feel anxious about getting into an autonomous vehicle before the technology is thoroughly proven safe.
Cleveland Residents Split on Riding Driverless
Cleveland residents interviewed for the Cleveland 19 News story had mixed reactions. One resident said they'd rather have a human than a machine making decisions on the road. Another said they'd be open to riding in a driverless car. Preston Espinosa said he'd take a chance and ride in one at least once, while Cedric Hunt said he opposes machines taking jobs away from taxi drivers.
Nationally, states are approaching driverless-vehicle accountability differently. In Denver, police say state law and city ordinances currently provide no mechanism to cite a fully driverless vehicle for a traffic infraction, according to the Denver Gazette. California and Tennessee have already passed laws establishing mechanisms for ticketing moving violations involving autonomous vehicles, the paper notes. A Colorado Polling Institute survey cited in the same report found 58% of respondents had not ridden and were unlikely to ride in Waymo taxis, while nearly a third, 32%, said they were likely to try the service.
California's Approach Targets Manufacturers
California's Assembly Bill 2193 takes a different tack, proposing that manufacturers of certain levels of autonomous-vehicle technology could be cited for moving violations committed by their driverless vehicles, according to the Sacramento Bee. Under that bill, makers and operators of Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous technology, rather than the vehicle's manufacturer, would receive the citations. That stands in contrast to Ohio's proposal, which would place responsibility on the vehicle's owner.
Not everyone in the self-driving trucking industry has embraced the push toward autonomy. A California Teamsters local sued to block a state law allowing self-driving trucks on roadways, Signal Ohio reports, underscoring the labor tensions tangled up in the broader rollout of the technology. Federal guidance tracked by the Alternative Fuels Data Center also notes that Ohio's governor has the authority to pause autonomous-vehicle testing in the state if there's evidence the technology isn't safe, though that authority is conditional and has not been invoked.
For now, House Bill 1034 remains at the introduction stage, with no votes taken. Cleveland 19 News reports no timeline for when Ohioans might routinely be able to ride in driverless cars, leaving the practical rollout of the technology, and the rules that will govern it, still very much in progress.
