WASHINGTON, DC – During a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on autonomous vehicles (AV), U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) called for the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization bill to include a bipartisan regulatory framework for AVs. The surface transportation reauthorization bill sets new policy and funding priorities that help improve roadway safety, strengthen infrastructure investments, and enhance local public transportation initiatives.
During the hearing, Peters emphasized the need for a specific set of federal policies to help guide the safe deployment of AVs on our roads and ensure American innovators pave the way on autonomous technologies. Peters also underscored the potential economic and safety benefits of AVs for American companies, workers, and consumers.
“We know that this technology is a huge part of the future of the global automotive industry. But right now, as has been said, China is investing heavily in dominating the autonomous vehicle market,” said Peters during the hearing. “So, it is absolutely imperative that we take action to ensure that American innovation, and American standards, lead the way on the world stage, and not China.”
Peters emphasized how clear federal policies on AVs will be critical to the future of mobility, specifically to Michigan’s automotive sector and autoworkers.
“Congress cannot be silent on a technology that will literally shape the future of mobility. Automotive jobs have been at the heart of my state of Michigan and our manufacturing economy for over a century, and we need to ensure that those jobs stay here in America,” Peters continued.
America is currently experiencing a roadway safety crisis, with more than 100 Americans dying on our roads every day. During his remarks, Peters also highlighted the opportunity AVs present for significantly reducing roadway injuries and deaths.
“We must do everything that we can to harness solutions with the power to bring that number as close to zero as possible, but that also requires building trust,” said Peters. “Americans deserve to know with certainty that these vehicles will deliver safer streets, and that federal regulators have laid out clear rules of the road. The bottom line is, it’s up to Congress to do something.”
Throughout his time in the Senate, Peters has championed efforts to advance rules of the road for AVs in the United States and previously pushed for an AV regulatory framework to help usher in safe adoption of this technology. In 2022, he led his colleagues in sending a letter to then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to advocate for a federal framework to support AV adoption, and later advocated for these polices with Buttigieg during a Commerce Committee hearing.
Leveraging his role on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Peters has consistently fought to advance provisions in funding legislation to help accelerate the safe development of autonomous driving systems. This includes $13.9 million secured in recent funding legislation for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Automation Safety and $3.5 million NHTSA’s Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) Program, which focuses on collaboration between automakers and federal agencies to share data on, and improve the performance of, advanced driver assistance systems.
Peters also fought to include robust investment in AV initiatives in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which was signed into law in 2021, including $3 million for the University of Michigan Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT) to help advance research in connected infrastructure and autonomous vehicles.
