Sen. Gary Peters’ enthusiasm for building a regulatory framework to support the mass production and sale of self-driving cars goes beyond a passion for the auto industry that’s expected from Michigan lawmakers.
What’s at stake, he says, isn’t merely the future of the industry, it’s America’s leadership in technology.
“A lot of people see self-driving cars as the moonshot for artificial intelligence,” Peters, D-Mich., said. “So this is of critical economic importance to the United States.”
Consequently, Peters, an avid motorcyclist, and his Republican counterpart, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota, have been trying for the past year to convince holdout members of the Senate to support their bill establishing federal standards.
[Related: House GOP ramps up pressure on Senate to pass self-driving car bill]
Passing the measure is paramount, he says, as companies like General Motors, Google-owned Waymo, Tesla and others are aggressively developing autonomous-driving technology that advocates say could significantly curb the nearly 40,000 deaths a year on U.S. highways.
In a Q&A with the Washington Examiner, Peters elaborated on the technology’s potential as well as a recent trip to South Korea where he met with top executives from Hyundai Motor Co. and toured a test track for self-driving vehicles.
Q: What did you learn in South Korea?
A: The Koreans are very focused on self-driving vehicles as the future of the automotive industry, both the Korean government as well as private industry there.
I had the opportunity to visit [the Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute], which is their national testing facility for automobiles generally. They are building within KATRI a place they call K-City, which is their autonomous vehicle testing facility. It’s modeled and very similar to Mcity, which is the test facility of the University of Michigan.
It is a government effort: About half of the facility is funded by the government, the other half by private industry. The goal is to fully validate and test the self-driving vehicles before they get out on the road in Korea and other places.
I also had an opportunity to visit with folks at Hyundai. On my way from my meeting with key Hyundai officials, I rode in their Level 4 self-driving car, which drove me to their test track. It is a very sophisticated automobile with sophisticated autonomous features that is on the road today on [test] tracks in Korea.
Q: What did your discussions focus on?
A: There is no question that we’re facing intense international competition in the field of autonomous driving. The Koreans firmly believe this represents the future of the auto industry and will transform the auto industry into a mobility industry.
They know getting early to market is very important. Their ability to field these automobiles safely and quickly will lead to a significant competitive advantage. The Koreans know that the Chinese, in particular, are very focused on self-driving technology, and they see that the Chinese will be significant competitors in this area.
In order to mass-produce these vehicles, you do need to have a new regulatory framework. Our current regulatory framework assumes there’s a human being in command of the automobile.
General Motors, as they are working on their prototype self-driving cars using the Chevy Bolt platform, they are also simultaneously designing the assembly lines to build these self-driving cars. General Motors is actually building an assembly line to mass produce. They can’t produce them at scale until they know there’s a regulatory framework that they are operating under.
Q: Why do officials in South Korean see such a need for the U.S. to pass a regulatory framework?
A: The U.S. market is an incredibly important market for automobiles. It was their hope that the United States would find the right balance between safety for consumers as these vehicles are deployed, while at the same time create the flexibility that is necessary to allow innovation to move forward.
Having the proper legal framework allows you to produce cars at scale, and if you’re able to produce cars at scale, you will achieve a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
You may have to wait to deploy these vehicles in certain countries until they get their regulatory framework in place. When other countries do eventually come around to changing their regulations, the domestic companies will be behind other companies that may already be operating.
The auto companies realize that self-driving cars, which will operate at least initially in ride-share environments, will really change the industry in terms of the number of auto companies that may actually be producing automobiles.
My number one focus is to make sure our U.S. automotive manufacturers are in a position to be survivors in this rapidly changing environment.
Q: What are the consequences if your bill is not passed by the end of 2018?
A: Every day that goes by, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage against European manufacturers and Asian manufacturers. I’m particularly concerned with Chinese efforts, given the Chinese have a different kind of government structure and regulatory structure than we have, and they are making massive investments in this technology.
This is a competitive race not just for dominance in the area of mobility, but also in the area of artificial intelligence.
But the thing that is most exciting to me about this technology is safety. Given the fact that about 95 percent of accidents are caused by human error and the fact that nearly 40,000 people die on our highways every year, the longer we wait to deploy some of these technologies means more people will die. The quicker we can get this technology validated, proven and put on the road, the quicker we can save people’s lives.
