On Wednesday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Dan Saltzman kicked off the city's Smart Autonomous Vehicles Initiative, directing the Portland Bureau of Transportation to develop autonomous vehicle policies for the city. The bureau will also solicit proposals from companies that would test driverless cars on Portland streets.

Wheeler made the announcement at the Portland Business Alliance’s April Forum Breakfast, which had the theme “The Road to Autonomous Vehicles."

"My goal is to have an autonomous vehicle pilot program in Portland, working for Portlanders, by the end of the year..." the mayor said. "By working with private industry, we can make sure that cutting-edge technology expands access to public transit and reduces pollution and congestion.”

The directive tells the Portland Bureau of Transportation to take a number of actions to advance SAVI within the next 60 days. These include proposing an Interim Transportation System Plan for the Portland City Council to consider, along with publishing a request for information that invites autonomous vehicle testing with safety, equity, climate and economic goals.

Under the directive, the bureau will also adopt an Interim Administrative Rule that provides a path to permit entities to apply to test, pilot or deploy AVs in Portland, and it will develop public engagement, reporting and evaluation for AVs in the city.

According to Wheeler, a good part of the reason to develop rules for AVs now is timing. The technology is on the horizon, and cities that wait too long to figure out how to deal with it will ultimately not have much say in the matter, he said.

Environmental concerns are also driving the initiative.

"The transportation sector contributes over 40% of greenhouse gas emissions here in Oregon," said Portland General Electric business development director Charlie Allcock in a statement about SAVI.

"Increased traffic and congestion could put a damper on economic growth. We will work closely with the city area as we move towards a self-driving and emission-free transportation future.”

The utility favors the initiative, and sponsored the event at which it was announced.

Other cities — but so far, not that many — are allowing AV testing of various kinds. In January, Las Vegas tested an autonomous bus on Fremont Street. The company NuTonomy is testing a driverless car in certain parts of Boston. Google's Waymo is testing self-driving cars on the roads of Chandler, Arizona. Waymo also happens to be suing Uber about AVs, which Uber was testing until recently in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Tempe, Arizona.