The New Jersey legislature is considering Senate Bill S1677, introduced by Senators Andrew Zwicker and Gordon Johnson, which would permit the testing of fully autonomous vehicles\u2014robotaxis\u2014within the state under strict conditions. The bill mandates coordination with the state police and the attorney general\u2019s office to ensure authorities are fully informed about where and when autonomous vehicle testing occurs. Additionally, test vehicles must carry general liability insurance of at least $5,000,000.<\/p>\n
As currently written, S1677 requires that a fully autonomous vehicle \u201cbe equipped with crash-avoidance systems, including a camera system and two distinct sensing modalities that are capable of detecting and tracking obstacles in the event of failure of the camera system.\u201d This provision has drawn criticism from Tesla, but Zwicker, a physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, stated, \u201cAt this point, I don\u2019t think the evidence is sufficient that a single sensor with software can handle situations that humans can.\u201d Zwicker became an autonomous vehicle believer after riding in a Waymo robotaxi in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Notably, the bill does not mandate specific technologies like radar or lidar. It is tech agnostic, specifying only that two monitoring technologies be used in addition to cameras. This leaves room for future innovations. Zwicker frames this as safety-first governance for America\u2019s most densely populated state, not an anti-Tesla crusade. Tesla\u2019s Engage portal warns the bill would mean its autonomous vehicle technology \u201ccouldn\u2019t legally operate in New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zwicker\u2019s office reported receiving roughly 4,000 emails in a single day about the bill. Most people said they were defending Autopilot\u2014but the bill has no impact on Autopilot or Full Self Driving (Supervised), as the legislation applies only to robotaxis. If the Tesla Cybercab ever goes into mass production, it will not be able to operate legally in New Jersey unless it complies with the bill\u2019s provisions\u2014assuming the legislature passes the bill and the governor signs it.<\/p>\n
Elon Musk insists that humans navigate fine with two eyes, so a camera-only system backed by adequate computing power and AI should suffice. He argues that adding radar or lidar is too costly and dislikes the exterior protrusions on vehicles like Waymo and Zoox. However, Philip Koopman, an autonomous vehicle safety expert at Carnegie Mellon, disagrees. He told The Verge that \u201chuman brains are fundamentally more powerful than AI because we understand.\u201d Cameras can be obscured by snow, mud, or dead insects, making backup sensors far safer.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s obsession with details is well-known; he delayed the Model X\u2019s production for two years to perfect falcon-wing doors because he hated minivan sliding doors and their visible channels. Similarly, his aversion to sensor \u201cbaubbles\u201d may influence his stance.<\/p>\n
Waymo and Zoox argue that cameras struggle in glare and fog, while radar penetrates weather and lidar maps 3D space with precision. Nico DiMattia noted, \u201cRedundancy isn\u2019t overhead \u2014 it\u2019s the point.\u201d Koopman stated that camera-only technology is \u201cnot up to the challenge\u201d for 24\/7 operation across most New Jersey roads today, and at fleet scale, rare edge cases cease to be rare.<\/p>\n
DiMattia wrote, \u201cTesla argues that its cheaper, simpler sensing setup will give it a scaling advantage. Maybe that will be true someday, when its self-driving tech works better. But Waymo, whose cars are brimming with lidars, radars, cameras, and audio receivers, is way ahead of Tesla right now. The Alphabet-owned company is doing over 500,000 paid driverless trips per week across at least 10 cities, with more markets coming online regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n
S1677 also includes testing requirements: companies need specific state authorization to operate autonomous vehicles in New Jersey, which requires at least 50,000 crash-free miles of supervised testing and a pilot program lasting at least three years. Futurism senior editor Victor Tangermann noted that other states, including New York pondering a similar bill, could follow in a domino effect that might derail Tesla\u2019s current trajectory. The industry is pushing Congress to pass national legislation, but Congress has shown little inclination.<\/p>\n
This mirrors the artificial intelligence debate where states seek to protect citizens while industry wants uniform federal laws. Auto manufacturers dislike 50 different exhaust standards, and states serve as \u201clittle laboratories of democracy.\u201d The deciding factor may be Elon Musk, who donated nearly $300 million to elect the current occupant of the Offal Office, potentially influencing federal intervention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Jersey’s S1677 bill requires robotaxis to have camera plus two backup sensors. Tesla’s camera-only approach would be banned. Waymo leads with 500K weekly trips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test2.cryptofinancewire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}