According to a letter obtained by Reuters, the automotive industry is encouraging the Trump administration to accelerate the deployment of consistent autonomous vehicle regulations. The letter was penned by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, including GM.
“If the federal government fails to act to advance sensible AV policies, we will cede our leadership in this economically crucial sector to China,” said the Alliance for Automotive Innovation in its letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “Multiple agencies and state regulatory regimes create inconsistent rules, risking safety gaps and eroding public trust.”
The letter calls for the U.S. Department of Transportation to codify a rule saying autonomous vehicles do not require a human driver in the driver’s seat. It also calls for the license to offer robotaxis with no controls for human input, like a steering wheel and pedals. Additionally, the letter calls to allow self-driving trucks to use cab-mounted warning beacons rather than devices requiring drivers to deploy them physically.
Federal autonomous vehicle regulation has been slow in recent years. This is partially due to high-profile accidents, like an Uber robotaxi getting in a fatal accident with a pedestrian that led to Uber suspending its robotaxi program in the U.S. entirely. Another high-profile AV accident involved one of GM’s Cruise AVs dragging a pedestrian who was hit by another car. Accidents like these cause mistrust of fully autonomous vehicles in the public, which adds hesitancy to the federal government loosening the rules.
However, inconsistent state regulations make it difficult for automakers like GM and Tesla and robotaxi companies like Google’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox to develop AV technologies and provide their services to a wide range of riders. This creates a profitability challenge that led to GM exiting the robotaxi business entirely, having shut down the Cruise brand in 2024.
Tesla CEO and close Trump ally Elon Musk has predicted that autonomous Tesla robotaxis will be operating in Houston, Texas as soon as this June. Musk made this prediction about three months after his We, Robot event, where the autonomous Cybercab was unveiled. Musk has a long history of overly optimistic predictions for the timing and capabilities of Tesla’s autonomy, but his most recent claim could be a sign that he has sway in the U.S. Transportation Department to influence the rules around autonomous cars.
Comments
Good move for auto companies. Autonomous vehicles will be great for seniors and boomers have all the money.
If what you say is true, that “boomers” have all of the money it’s probably because they worked their @sses off for it. Unlike today’s generation where they expect everthing to be handed to them.
Sure if you are an aspiring authoritarian looking to limit the peoples right to freedom to travel instead of allowing them to choose their own paths to a destination. Then it makes perfect sense why China would be leading this like they are leading in people surveillance technology.
As for me, I hope we don’t see this autonomous future. I can see the goal of all this being cars you can personally own and drive yourselves will be a luxury only for the rich while the rest of us get publicly owned pods and no personal family vehicles anymore. So no thank you.