Thune Plugs Autonomous Car Bill at Hearing, Says He Hopes Senate Can Pass It

“We’re trying to work with them ... on specific concerns we’ve been trying to accommodate without doing harm to the overall bill,” Thune said, saying he spoke with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., about getting floor time for the bill he hopes could pass by unanimous consent. Alternately, the bill could move by “hitching a ride” on the infrastructure bill Congress will take up once President Donald Trump sends his proposal to Capitol Hill hopefully “next week,” Thune said. Depending on how the infrastructure bill is financed, it could pass this year since such bills typically are “bipartisan,” Thune said.

“I want to avoid appearing to be an automotive Neanderthal but also want to avoid another generation of cars that might be unsafe at any speed,” Blumenthal said at the hearing. “Nobody is for overregulation but sometimes standards are necessary to save lives,” he said, referencing industry witnesses pleading for a light-touch approach so as not to discourage innovation. He plans to vote for “a bill” and pledged to continue the dialogue with Thune.

Markey, who didn't attend the hearing, still has a hold on the legislation and "continues to work with leadership to strengthen provisions in the bill related to automotive defects, cyberattacks, and consumer privacy,” a spokeswoman emailed. Feinstein also has unresolved safety concerns and hasn't lifted her hold, an aide told us. Some senators would like the bill to mandate a “fallback” to autonomous driving that would require a driver be present, a tough hurdle. “These are going to be driverless vehicles, so it seems to defeat the purpose,” Thune said.

"We're continuing to work with senators that have a variety of concerns," said Sen. Gary Peters, R-Mich., who co-sponsored S-1885 with Thune and worked hard to gain support across both sides of the aisle, he told reporters. "It's been a heavy lift from the beginning. We've had nearly 1,000 meetings with over 300 stakeholders" on the legislation, Peters said, with enough objections he was unsure the bill would make it on a unanimous vote through committee last year. "This is transformative technology that raises a lot of questions, but now we're down to a few folks that have concerns," he said: "I'm confident that if it got to the floor, it would pass overwhelmingly."

"We need a science-based, data-driven approach to creating policies and legislation that's modeled after successful" approaches elsewhere, said Randy Avent, president of Florida Polytechnic University. The federal government, through research funding and stakeholder consortiums, can help collect data that build best practices to ensure development of safe and innovative technology, but "too much interference from government can inhibit innovation," he testified.

Cybersecurity standards are "tightly intertwined with the emergence of increasingly automated and connected vehicles," said Mike Mansuetti, president of Robert Bosch North America. The company advocates a "layered approach to vehicle cybersecurity" built into systems, car components and vehicle design, he said. Bosch sees automotive cybersecurity focusing on systems that that can constantly monitor and communicate with the vehicle to detect and prevent intruders from interfering with cars.

"You don't want to stifle innovation, but you need to deploy technologies in a safe way so all stakeholders understand how it is being used," said Tim Kentley-Klay, co-founder Zoox, which works on incorporating artificial intelligence into autonomous vehicle operations. "AI in mobility will take us from the age of the automobile into the next mobility age ... the age of robotics." Rollout will start first in dense cities like New York where cars "already can't move," he said.