In late May, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure voted 62-2 to advance the BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that includes $580 billion in federal infrastructure investment. The bill moved out of committee with the kind of bipartisan support that has become rare in Washington. For the autonomous vehicle industry, the vote sent a signal worth paying attention to.

The BUILD America 250 Act — authored by Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA) — includes autonomous trucking provisions that represent the most significant action on Capitol Hill for autonomous vehicles in years. For anyone waiting for Washington to provide the regulatory clarity that autonomous trucking companies need to scale, this is a meaningful development. The federal policy framework being assembled reflects a bipartisan consensus that the United States cannot afford to fall behind on this technology, lest strategic competitors like China pass us by.