No Timeline for Reintroducing Driverless Car Legislation in Senate

There’s no timeline for reintroducing a Senate bill that would create a legal framework for autonomous vehicles, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told us Thursday. Members are actively engaged, and the legislation remains a priority for Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., a Thune aide said Friday.

Authored by Thune and Peters, the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies (AV Start) Act (S.1885) was last introduced in September 2017. House companion legislation, the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution (Self Drive) Act (HR-3388), passed unanimously that month. The Senate failed to move the AV Start Act (see 1812210049).

AVs received renewed focus last week when Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao unveiled the administration’s guidelines for driverless regulations at CES 2020 in Las Vegas (see 2001080067). Automated Vehicles 4.0 advocates for the industry to follow voluntary consensus standards and evidence-based, data-driven regulations. It highlights the need for U.S. AV leadership.

The “whole idea” of the AV Start Act is “to make sure innovation can move forward, and we don’t want to hamper that,” Peters told us in Washington. “We need to let the innovation grow. There needs to be some regulatory certainty for folks to make the investment.”

Other Senate Democrats remain skeptical. The auto industry was advocating for innovation to lead the way in the early 20th century, despite the need for safety features like rearview mirrors, seatbelts and airbags, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told us.

Markey, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., helped block the AV Start Act last Congress over safety concerns. Timetables for deploying AVs commercially “have consistently been overoptimistic,” Blumenthal told us now. He hasn’t heard “a peep” from Peters or Thune about moving the bill.

Industry’s push to address safety concerns “later” means “after we’ve lost people’s lives,” Markey said, citing a growing list of AV-related fatalities. Safety and privacy protections must be built in upfront, at the beginning of development, he said: “Oftentimes, safety turns out to be something the companies don’t really want to invest in.”

The technology will ultimately save lives “big time,” Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., told us. “But we need to work on” legislation. He noted the “tragic” accidents but said “years down the road, we’ll wonder why we allowed 45, 50,000 Americans to die every year in car accidents.” Asked if autonomous vehicles are ready for the road, he said, “We’re going to get there, but we need to pass a bill.”

“I’m encouraged the administration is moving forward and laying out some parameters,” said House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. The goal should be for the U.S. to lead in AV development, and getting a legal framework is “really important” for relevant companies to invest, she said. “We can address the safety concerns while still moving forward.”

Nobody is saying AVs are ready for commercial deployment, McMorris Rodgers said, but the technology could be as revolutionary as “going from horse and buggy to automobiles.” She agrees with Upton that AVs will ultimately save lives on U.S. roads. But industry experts told her autonomous vehicles might not be available for one or two generations.

FAA should develop a data analysis plan and share information publicly about how test site research will relate to drone integration plans, GAO recommended Thursday. FAA could make better use of the data and share more publicly, the auditor said of FAA’s seven designated drone test sites.