WASHINGTON — A gaggle of 12 U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to develop a complete federal framework for autonomous automobiles, in keeping with a letter seen by Reuters.
“We lag behind in shaping a regulatory framework that may foster this innovation whereas concurrently defending and inspiring all the essential advantages we consider autonomous automobiles are able to delivering,” wrote the senators, led by Gary Peters, D-Mich., who chairs a subcommittee on floor transportation.
The letter cited efforts by rivals, notably China, who “have considerably invested in autonomous and related car applied sciences.” It asks Buttigieg to element what “particular actions” the division is “contemplating within the close to time period relating to autonomous automobiles.”
A spokesperson for Buttigieg, who will testify on Could 3 earlier than the Senate Commerce committee, didn’t instantly remark.
The letter mentioned the “vital technical and financial challenges at hand” in respect to autonomous automobiles ought to spur the federal authorities to deal with the difficulty now.
In February, Normal Motors and its self-driving know-how unit Cruise petitioned NHTSA for permission to construct and deploy a self-driving car with out human controls like steering wheels or brake pedals. The petition is pending.
The Democratic senators’ letter asks how the division will “consider functions from producers” and whether or not it’s offering “readability concerning the timeline and procedures for the overview course of.”
Congress has been stymied for greater than 5 years over laws to ease rules that might permit for the deployment of 1000’s of autonomous automobiles.
Unions have expressed issues about legislative efforts and Republicans have blamed organized labor and plaintiff attorneys for blocking laws.
The Democratic senators mentioned autonomous automobiles have the potential to cut back site visitors deaths, increase mobility entry to the disabled and scale back the necessity for parking in congested cities.