The U.S. House Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection recently held a hearing to discuss 14 draft bills regarding self-driving laws and regulation and to provide constructive feedback on how members can further clarify language to promote the use and development of self-driving vehicles.
The main theme of the subcommittee hearing was the importance of ensuring consumer safety on the road. Topics discussed included the capitalization of self-driving technology’s potential to save lives, clarification of federal and state roles, and supported advancement in innovation.
“Last year there were over 40,000 fatalities and more than 2 million injuries on our nation’s highways,” Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta (R-OH) said. “Our goal today is to enact the right policies to encourage self-driving technologies that can drastically reduce those numbers. We have a real opportunity to address this problem. This isn’t the government saying you have to get in a self-driving car. This is government making sure that industry can innovate in response to our changing lives.”
Mitch Bainwol, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, further explained how society and industry can benefit from the advancement of self-driving technology.
“Self-driving technologies will potentially save thousands of American lives annually, addressing a large portion of roadway fatalities and crashes associated with human error,” Bainwol said. “Cars with self-driving features also offer huge quality of life benefits – access for the disabled and elderly; time saved by being driven rather than driving so the commuting time can be spent on more productive activities; and the increased freedom that comes from quicker trips due to less congestion.”
Other areas that were discussed around the draft legislation include the need for certainty within the industry in development, innovation and manufacturing in such ways that it makes the United States beneficial from a global standpoint.
“To be competitive in the global self-driving vehicle market, the United States needs to make sure that innovators face a single set of standards as opposed to a patchwork of standards from different states,” Tim Day, senior vice president of the Chamber Technology Engagement Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said. “Without preemption, we risk impeding our innovators and ceding our leadership in this industry.”