Autonomous vehicles present a unique problem for guarded HOA communities: the vehicle arriving at the gate may have no human driver capable of speaking with the guard.
This policy gives HOA boards, managers, security personnel, and gate attendants a practical framework for addressing autonomous and driverless vehicles while maintaining community security and allowing residents to use lawful transportation services.
The policy provides that autonomous vehicles may enter on substantially the same basis as other authorized passenger transportation, delivery, and service vehicles, provided the Association’s access-control requirements can be satisfied. The mere fact that a vehicle displays the name or logo of a recognized autonomous vehicle company does not itself constitute authorization to enter.
Among other subjects, the policy addresses:
- Advance resident authorization
- Empty vehicles arriving to pick up passengers
- How guards should handle unidentified vehicles
- When the gate should remain closed
- Operator-support and remote-assistance systems
- Prohibition against guards physically moving or entering an autonomous vehicle
- Vehicles that block or become disabled at the gate
- Approved access methods
- Temporary credentials and gate codes
- Pickup and waiting locations
- Autonomous deliveries
- Collision and property-damage documentation
- Emergency access
- Limits on Association responsibility
- Reasonable accommodation
- Future administrative procedures
The policy specifically provides that gate personnel are not responsible for determining whom an unidentified autonomous vehicle is attempting to pick up and are not required to contact multiple residences in an effort to identify the requesting passenger.
It also establishes procedures for vehicles that become immobilized or block an entrance, including contacting management, operator support, or emergency authorities when appropriate.
Ideal For: Guard-gated homeowners associations, condominium communities, private residential developments, security companies, community managers, and boards seeking to establish procedures before autonomous vehicles become a recurring gate-management problem.
