Congress will adjourn for the year without advancing an inaugural safety framework to oversee self-driving cars, leaving the burgeoning technology in regulatory limbo just as more consumers are poised to ride in autonomous vehicles.
Several states have passed their own laws to govern cars that are able to drive without any human interaction, but the auto industry has been clamoring for the federal government to approve the first nationwide statute to ensure uniformity.
And while commercial deployment is permitted now under certain conditions, the number of allowable vehicles is limited and companies are concerned that billions of dollars invested in the technology could eventually be at risk without legislation from Congress.
Carmakers intensified their lobbying efforts in the last few months to try to move the long-stalled measure in the Senate, but the lack of available floor-time made the effort more difficult, according to the bill’s main Democratic sponsor.
“Trying to get unanimous consent on a complicated bill is a tough task,” Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan told the Washington Examiner, adding that “goal posts are constantly moving.”
Instead, Peters and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota, the main GOP sponsor, will try to get the bill added to spending legislation that Congress must advance before Feb. 8 to fund the federal government.
Thune will relinquish control of the panel next year to become Senate majority whip, the second-highest ranking position in the chamber and one that will give him greater influence on the GOP’s agenda. Still, advancing the measure could become even more difficult in 2019.
While the House passed its own self-driving car bill unanimously last year, some supporters are concerned that Democrats may seek to make changes once they retake the House. And while Peters has held initial conversations on the legislation with Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey — the expected next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has authority over such matters — the two have not yet discussed whether the panel would seek to revise the prior version.
“My focus is to get it out of the Senate,” he said. “I have had conversations with various House members about this bill and I will be working with the new incoming [Chairman] Pallone.”
Some backers of the legislation charge that opponents, which include several Democrats and trial attorneys, have constantly revised their demands, making negotiations difficult. Thune circulated revised language earlier this month that addressed some key concerns, and Peters maintains that all parties are “negotiating in good faith.”
Waymo, owned by Google-parent company Alphabet, recently launched its own autonomous ride-share fleet in the Phoenix suburbs. General Motors plans to begin offering commercial rides for its self-driving cars in 2019, while Ford and others are planning to ramp up testing in places like Washington D.C.
To operate the vehicles — which do not have a steering wheel and other parts mandated by federal law — companies must receive waivers from the Transportation Department. But those come with a strict cap on the number of vehicles allowed. That limit would increase under the Senate legislation from the current 2,500 to 80,000, phased in over several years. It would also seek to amend any existing federal laws that prohibit the use of autonomous cars, like prohibitions against vehicles without steering wheels.
And similar to what happened in the aftermath of a crash in Tempe, Ariz. involving one of Uber’s self-driving cars that left one pedestrian dead, any bad publicity could undermine public perception, particularly given there is no existing federal oversight framework in place.
“There could be a huge consumer blow-back on this technology and that would be unfortunate,” Peters said.
