*written by Vic Maan, associate with Holness and Small Law Group A 20-year-old male from British Columbia has been charged with speeding and dangerous driving after he was arrested for sleeping behind the wheel of his Telsa while it was in “Autopilot” mode. The incident occurred near Ponoka, Alberta. When found by police, both the…
*Written by Vic Maan, associate lawyer at Holness and Small Law Group In a recent blog post, the current status of autonomous vehicles, which are also known as self-driving vehicles, in the USA, Canada and British Columbia was discussed. While the technology for autonomous vehicles has been well developed in North America, in order for…
The CBC News once asked the question whether Vancouver was Silicon Valley North? Since that time, the technology industry in this City has grown and boomed. Concurrently, the technology with Autonomous Vehicles has advanced immensely. But what is the current status of Autonomous Vehicles in the USA, Canada and Vancouver? When will we be able…
Personal injury laws and regulations for self-driving cars are being tested in the first driverless car death in North America. The Vehicle Automation Report was released on November 5, 2019 by the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington , D.C. The conclusion is clear, the self-driving car was not smart enough to detect the pedestrian…
Tesla owners in Canada can now have their parked vehicle drive to them, without a human driver. The Smart Summon feature in the Model S allows retrieval of your vehicle by a single tap of the Tesla mobile app. This sounds astounding for snow and ice ravaged parking lots. However, consenting owners will still be…
Autonomous vehicle service will begin in Scarborough’s Rouge Hill By September, 2020. Bus accident injuries are rare compared to other modes of transportation so expanding bus service could reduce auto accident injuries. Mayor John Tory announced that ambassadors likely transit employees, would be on board assisting the public. The automated shuttle for 8-12 citizens are…
One of the engineering wonders of self-driving car technology, Anthony Levandowski, has been charged with stealing trade secrets. The former Waymo/Google engineer was key in developing a LIDAR system before taking on employment with Uber. Uber agreed to a settlement of $245,000 million, paying equity to Waymo in a 2017 civil lawsuit. The judge had…
A door-to-door self driving service for people with disabilities would be welcomed by many in BC. The NDP left out stable funding for HanyDART in their last budget and have done nothing to support self driving fleet technology. Current taxi service is expensive and only accessible to those with benefits or private funding. Driverless door-to-door…
The race to provide the first self-driving taxi service won’t start in 2019. Chief Executive Officer Dan Ammann of Cruise confirmed the service will not be rolled out in the near future. However, Google’s Waymo is not far behind and may have the driverless taxi service available in 2020. Cruise has raised over $7 billion…
For the driverless car, features like steering wheels, rear view mirrors, warning lights and turn signal knobs are unnecessary. Auto regulations are therefore grappling with whether to allow human driver features to be removed from self driving cars. General Motors made a request for a two-year temporary waiver of some safety features with the National…