The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) has stated that a driver using Tesla’s ‘Smart Summon’ feature in a Richmond, B.C. parking lot was doing so illegally.
The white Tesla Model 3 was caught navigating to its owner in a Richmond shopping centre parking lot with no one behind the wheel and driving on the wrong side of the road earlier this week. The video caught headlines, and now, the ICBC — a Crown corporation — has issued a statement claiming that driverless cars are not permitted on B.C. roads.
The ICBC even went as far as to say that the vehicle insurance may have refused to provide coverage if the self-driving Tesla was to get into an accident.
Rules like these may vary by province. For instance, in B.C., parking lots are “hybrid composed of private property and a highway as defined in the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA),” according to Drive Smart BC. Yet in Ontario, “the rules of the road don’t apply on private property, according to a story published by The Globe and Mail last year.
So take note and find out the rules of the parking lots where you live and to be safe, contact your insurance providers to find out if you’re covered when your car is driving itself.
Source: Vancouver is Awesome, Drive Smart B.C., Globe and Mail
