California designates special lanes for High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV) to promote car-pooling and thereby achieve less congestion on the highway. Certain hybrid and electric vehicles have been allowed to use these lanes even if they have a single occupant to reduce their climate impact. One can expect that these lanes will be re-purposed or expanded to "Autonomous Vehicles Only" (AVO) lanes. For a vehicle traveling in such lanes, what kind of rules may apply? This blog post extends my previous post on "Rules for autonomous cars."
I think we can draw an analogy from aircraft travel - where passengers are allowed to move around once the airplane reaches cruising altitude. While current highway rules mandate that the front passengers must wear seatbelts at all times, one can expect that rules around vehicles in autonomous mode in dedicated lanes may be different. For instance, on a long distance inter-city journey, one may expect to stay in an AVO lane for hours at a stretch and during that time vehicle occupants can be allowed to stretch their legs safely by moving around the vehicle.
The notification to enter and exit "cruise" mode could be automated through DSRC with appropriate margins to ensure that occupants can return to their seats and wear seatbelts well before the vehicle exits the AVO lane.
The USDoT's Intelligent Transport System's office is already considering speed limited "Eco" lanes to reduce emissions and AVO lanes may already be under consideration.
That's all for today.
Kuntal.
