B.C.s government-run insurance body says the sort of driverless operation made possible by Teslas new Smart Summon feature is prohibited in the province, and that collisions involving Smart Summon may not be covered.Local outlet Richmond Newsthis past week shared a reader’s video showing a Tesla Model 3 being controlled via the Smart Summon app attempting to drive into a Richmond, B.C. parking lot in the oncoming lane.Had that car crashed, the ICBC told the newspaper, the owners insurance may not have provided coverage.Currently, B.C. laws do not permit driverless vehicles on our roads, ICBC said in a statement. A vehicle being driven autonomously in a shopping mall parking lot, for example, is not allowed. The driver is responsible for the operation of the vehicle including when driver assistance is activated.The videos were taken at a parking complex in Richmond, B.C., and show a white Tesla Model 3 with no driver at the wheel, driving to meet up with its owner, who was controlling the cars progress via the Smart Summon app a few hundred feet away.As the vehicle enters the parking lot it crosses the yellow center line, perhaps to avoid the person walking across the crosswalk. There are fewer painted lines on the pavement in shopping mall areas, so its possible the Teslas software was confused about its whereabouts.The video shows the car hesitating, and in the second video, a diesel VW Jettas driving past it seems to further confound the tech. The woman who shot the video says a security guard came running out of the mall to chase the vehicle before it was stopped, when a man thought to be a friend of the owners appeared. The Smart Summon feature was only rolled out in Canada a few weeks ago, and Transport Canada has yet to outline any specific standards governing its use. However, drivers generally arent even allowed to take their hands off the steering wheel while in a vehicle controlled by semi-autonomous tech, so their being completely outside the vehicle should be, by extension, prohibited, too.While many U.S. Tesla Smart Summon features have had no problem with the technology, there have also been dozens of videos of Smart Summon-controlled vehicles narrowly avoiding collisions and behaving bizarrely, prompting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) there to launch a formal
Origin: Watch: ICBC rules Tesla’s driverless Smart Summon feature not allowed in B.C.