Autonomous Vehicles

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

RECORDS SOUGHT

I formally request all applications for permits filed by requesters under the "Application for Permit to Demonstrate or Test Autonomous Vehicles in New York City" including all supplemental material filed by said applicants. This means all material filed alongside the following DOT Application form: https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/av-testing-application.pdf

This includes but is not limited to:

1) A list of all permits, active or inactive/expired, to test or operate autonomous
vehicles (if applicable) and brief description of coordination efforts related to
testing or operation with any foreign, state, or local government agency.

2) Reports describing the frequency of significant incidents involving Entity’s AVs
over the last 12 months and brief descriptions of actions taken to prevent them
from occurring in the future. A significant incident means an instance in which
Entity has determined the AV or test vehicle operator committed one or more of
the following traffic violations:
 Speeding
 Disobeying a traffic device (e.g., a stoplight, stop sign, turn restriction
sign, or one-way street sign)
 Failure to yield to a pedestrian, cyclist, or other vehicle with the right-ofway
 Failure to yield the right-of-way to an emergency vehicle
 Failure to comply with the traffic direction of a police officer, traffic
enforcement agent, or flag person
 Obstructing a traffic lane, including instances where an AV becomes
disabled in the public right-of-way

3) Reports of all crashes involving Entity’s AVs over the last three years, including
crashes that involved minor property damage, significant property damage, minor
injury, significant injury, or death. The report must include date, approximate time,
and location of each crash. For any crash involving serious injury or death,
include a description of the circumstances, any intervention by a test vehicle
operator, and the autonomous vehicle technology’s behavior immediately before,
during, and immediately after the collision.

4) Copies of police report(s) issued for crashes involving serious injury or death
involving Entity’s AVs.

5) All documents related to the applicants safety plans

6) All Safety Self-Assessments prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration that address some of these items may be submitted as part of the Safety Plan.

7) Copies of Autonomous Vehicle Technology Demonstration / Testing Permit(s) from the
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (NYS DMV), submitted alongside the application.

8) Copies of Autonomous Vehicle Technology Demonstration/Testing Application (AV-1) and
Addendum (AV-2) submitted to NYS DMV and associated application documents, submitted alongside the application.

9) Copies of Law Enforcement Interaction Plan submitted to NYS DMV

10) Copies of proof of at least $5 million in automobile insurance for any motor vehicle with
autonomous vehicle technology intended for demonstration or testing on any public
highway in the city of New York, a minimum of $3 million in personal liability insurance,
and a minimum of $2 million in property damage insurance

I also formally request all notices of approvals or rejections by the Department of Transportation for the aforementioned permit.

I also formally request any guidelines, white papers, or other guidance documents for Department of Transportation personnel responsible for adjudicating the acceptance or rejection of these permits.

INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SEARCH

1) Request for Public Records

Please search for any records even if they are already publicly available.

2) Request for Electronic and Paper/Manual Searches

I request that searches of all electronic and paper/manual indicies, filing systems, and locations for any and all records relating or referring to the subject of my request be conducted.

3) Request for Search of Filing Systems, Indicies, and Locations

I request the NYC Department of Transportation search all of its offices and components which are likely to contain responsive records.

4) Requests regarding photographs and other visual material

I request that any photography or visual material responsive to my request be released to me in their original or comparable forms, quality, and resolution. For example, if the agency maintains a photograph digitally, I request disclosure of the original digital image file, not a reduced resolution version of the image, or a printout, scan etc. Likewise, if a photograph was originally taken in color, I request the disclosure of the photograph is a color image not a black and white. Please contact me for any clarification on this point.

5) Requests for duplicate pages

I request disclosure of any and all supposedly duplicate pages. Scholars analyze records not only for the information available on any given page, but also for the relationship between that information and information on pages surrounding it. As such, though certain pages may have been previously released to me, the existence of those pages within new context renders them functionally new pages. As such, the only way to properly analyze released information is to analyze that information within its proper context. Therefore, I request disclosure of all duplicate pages.

6) Request for Search Emails

I request you search for emails relation to the subject matter of my request.

7) Request for Search of Records Transferred to Other Agencies

I request that in conducting its search the Department of Transportation disclose releasable records even if they are available publicly through other sources outside the Department of Transportation.

8) Regarding Destroyed Records

If any records responsive or potentially responsive to my requests have been destroyed, my requests includes, but is not limited to, any and all records relating or referring to the destruction of those records. This includes, but is not limited to, any and all records relating or referring to the events leading tot he destruction of those records.

INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SCOPE AND BREADTH OF REQUEST

Please interpret the scope of this request broadly. The Department of Transportation is instructed to interpret the scope of this request in the most liberal manner possible short of an interpretation that would lead to a conclusion that the request does not reasonably describe the records sought.

For this request please include ALL previously filed applications, and if possible, please consider this request rolling for all applications filed until December 30th 2024.

FORMAT

I request that any releases stemming from this request be provided to me in digital format, via email, or compact disk or similar. Please provide any data tables in CSV format. Any documents should be in PDF format.

I am an investigative journalist and the requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. For this reason, I request a waiver of the filing fee. My writing has appeared in Business Insider, The Nation, Time Magazine, and Fortune Magazine. The information from this FOIA request will be released through similar newspapers and magazines.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires. Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions concerning my request.

Sincerely,

Tekendra Parmar

Hello,

I was expecting a response by October 9th. Please note an agency must grant access to records, deny access in writing, or acknowledge the receipt of a request within five business days of receipt of a request. When an acknowledgement is given, it must include an approximate date within twenty business days indicating when it can be anticipated that a request will be granted or denied. However, if it is known that circumstances prevent the agency from granting access within twenty business days, or if the agency cannot grant access by the approximate date given and needs more than twenty business days to grant access, it must provide a written explanation of its inability to do so and a specific date by which it will grant access. That date must be reasonable in consideration of the circumstances of the request.

Hi Meryl,

I can only imagine how swamped your department is but would you mind sending me a timeline? This would be in line with your obligation under New York State FOL law. Copied here for your convenience:

3. (a) Each entity subject to the provisions of this article, ***within five business days of the receipt of a written request for a record
reasonably described, shall make such record available to the person requesting it, deny such request in writing or furnish a written
acknowledgment of the receipt of such request and a statement of the approximate date,***which shall be reasonable under the
circumstances of the request, when such request will be granted or denied, including, where appropriate, a statement that access to
the record will be determined in accordance with subdivision five of this section. ***An agency shall not deny a request on the basis that
the request is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burdensome because
the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copying,
programming or other services required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of
subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article. *** An agency may require a person requesting lists of names and addresses to
provide a written certification that such person will not use such lists of names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes
and will not sell, give or otherwise make available such lists of names and addresses to any other person for the purpose of allowing
that person to use such lists of names and addresses for solicitation or fund-raising purposes

Thanks so much for your time. I am looking forward to hearing from you at your soonest. I'll give you a ring if I don't hear back from you by tomorrow afternoon.

All my best,
Tekendra

Hello,

I do not believe that there are no responsive documents to this request. I have specifically asked for applications to test autonomous vehicles. Here are various news reports about self-driving cars being tested in New York:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXheeSWMRlA

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/28/24108894/nyc-autonomous-robotaxi-safety-driver-permit-eric-adams

https://www.govtech.com/transportation/new-york-city-to-allow-driverless-car-tests

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/business/money-report/alphabets-self-driving-unit-waymo-closes-5-6-billion-funding-round-as-robotaxi-race-heats-up-in-the-u-s/3680577/

https://www.autoweek.com/news/a60357152/autonomous-vehicle-testing-nyc-requirements/

Is it correct to say that the nobody has applied for permits to test self-driving cars?