SB 5994, from Sen. Matt Boehnke (R–Kennewick), establishing the rules and regulations governing the operations of fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Washington, took a spin around the track before heading back to the garage for repairs.

The bill outlines the conditions under which people may operate fully autonomous vehicles without a human driver on the state’s public roadways and includes significant preemption of city authority. AWC summarized the bill here.

SB 5594 was heard in the Senate Transportation Committee earlier this month but was not considered in the committee’s executive session. Thus, the bill failed to pass the required deadline to continue its path through the Legislature.

Given the growing popularity and need for electric vehicles and the impending presence of AVs on our state’s roads, AWC expects SB 5994 to be one among multiple proposals regarding the governance of AVs to come.