British Columbia Outlaws Self-Driving Cars

by Chris Teague

Published: April 17th, 2024

british columbia outlaws self driving cars

Americans, especially Californians, have good reason to be skeptical of autonomous vehicles. There have been multiple crashes and plenty of annoying traffic holdups as companies test robotaxis and other vehicles, and now, some Canadians are taking action to prevent similar issues.

The British Columbia provincial government moved to ban autonomous vehicles, making anything exceeding the standard for SAE Level 2 driving illegal. As The Drive noted, the government said that the “Motor Vehicle Act prohibits a person from driving, or permitting the driving of, a Level 3, 4, or 5 automated vehicle. This means that highly automated self-driving vehicles cannot yet be driven on public roads in B.C., nor can highly automated self-driving feature be used.” Fines could reach $2,000 Canadian for offenses, and some violations could result in up to a six-month prison sentence, though it’s worth noting that much less severe consequences are likely.

Only a handful of consumer-ready cars currently offer higher than Level 2 autonomy, including some high-end Mercedes models. The ruling does not affect Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, Ford’s BlueCruise, or GM’s Super Cruise.

Despite sliding under the radar, Ford and Tesla have come under fire for their driving systems’ driver monitoring and safety capabilities, as vehicles from both companies have been involved in deadly crashes over the last year. General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle operations are slowly coming back online after a halt of testing due to a crash, though it’s unclear how widespread the recovery will be or how long it will take to get there.

[Image: Engel Ching via Shutterstock]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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2 of 14 comments

Doc423 on Apr 17, 2024

SDC's are still a LONG way off, 15-20 years minimum.

3 Reply
MaintenanceCosts on Apr 18, 2024

Just here to say thanks for the gorgeous picture of Vancouver, which may be my favorite city in the world.

2 Reply

Recent Comments

Calrson Fan I predict this won't sell any better than the F150 Lightening. People with money to burn will buy it for the "hey look what I got" factor. They'll tire of it quickly once they have shown it to friends & family and then sell or trade in at a huge loss. It will be their first and last EV PU truck until the technology & charging infrastructure matures.
Carson D There is a story going around that a man who bought a new Tundra was contacted by his insurance company because his son's phone had paired with his infotainment system, and the insurance company added his son to his policy as a result. If Toyota is cooperating with insurance companies, one might think that they're doing so in order to get lower rates for their vehicles as a selling feature. Spying on your customers and ratting them out to insurance companies is not a selling feature. I know of one sale that it has already cost them.
Chris P Bacon "Needs a valve replaced" and has a cracked windshield, which would be a problem if you live in a state with an annual safety inspection. Based on the valve alone, it's overpriced. If those issues were corrected, it might be priced about right to be a cheap ride until something bigger broke. It's probably a $500 car in current condition.
SilverHawk Being a life-long hobby musician, I have very eclectic tastes in music. 2 of my vehicles have a single-disk cd player, so that's how I keep my sanity on the road.
Golden2husky So the short term answer is finding a way to engage the cloaking device by disabling your car's method of transmitting data. Thinking out loud here - would a real FSM show the location of the module and antenna...could power be cut to that module? I'm assuming that OTA updates would not occur but I wonder what else might be affected...I have no expectations of government help but frankly that is exactly what is required here. This is a textbook case where the regulatory sledgehammer is the only way to be sure.