Business

House Gives Green Light To Self-Driving Cars

REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
Font Size:

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that loosens the reins over companies’ ability to test self-driving car technology.

Known as the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution Act, or SELF DRIVE Act, the legislation will expand the private industry’s capacity to delve into the rapidly growing enterprise. Businesses can now apply for exemptions from federal- or state-imposed regulations that mandate certain safety and design protocols.

The exemptions are limited, though. The pending law specifies that a manufacturer is not allowed to offer more than 25,0000 such vehicles in the first 12-month period, 50,000 in the next 12-month period, with 100,000 maximum thereafter.

The bill also gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the power to adapt federal standards as the budding technology grows.

“Self-driving cars hold the promise of making America’s roads safer, creating new economic opportunities, and helping seniors and those with disabilities live more independently. The SELF DRIVE Act strikes the critical balance of enhancing consumer safety while promoting the continued development of this cutting-edge technology,” Republicans Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon and Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta of Ohio said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill paves the way for advanced collision avoidance systems and self-driving cars nationwide, and ensures that America stays a global leader in innovation.” (RELATED: Distracted Driving Is A Huge Problem, And Autonomous Car Could Help)

Dozens of companies, both within the U.S. and around the world, are racing to become the first to have a fully operable driverless vehicle on the market. In fact, a large portion of the firms aren’t even car or car part manufacturers.

Microsoft and Google have been delving into autonomous vehicle technology for some time. Uber and Lyft, the two main ride-sharing competitors in the U.S., are as well. Apple, however, which was quite hush on its potential strategy, appears to be ditching its ostensible plan for creating a fully functional self-driving vehicle, but is still exploring the technology that helps the vehicles operate, just like several others. (RELATED: Google, Apple Are Teaming Up With Rental Car Companies Like Avis, Hertz For The Future Of Driving)

Since the technology is nascent, regulators and lawmakers didn’t seem quite certain how to approach it. Even though the bill is not very comprehensive and doesn’t address the nuances of the prospective technology, its passage now gives at least a certain degree of clarity to a cloudy area of relatively irresolute policy.

“The House vote marks an important first step in creating the framework for the safe introduction of highly autonomous vehicles into our nation’s transportation system,” said David St. Amant, interim president and CEO of Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) of America. “ITS America is confident that highly automated vehicles will help solve many of our nation’s most critical transportation challenges while saving thousands of lives annually, improving mobility, providing greater accessibility, increasing sustainability, and strengthening our economy.”

Some critics worry that autonomous vehicles, specifically trucks, will trigger a huge surge in job losses, since truck driving is a highly popular occupation in America. Others, like tech guru and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, say the opposite will be true and that technology replacing jobs is a “recurring panic” and a oft-professed “Luddite fallacy.” He cited how many people around a century ago protested the emergence of cars because they were pushing the horse and carriage industry into obsolescence. But the manufacturing of vehicles not only created more jobs directly, according to Andreessen, but also spurred innovation in other areas, such as paved road construction. This led to the idea and further development of suburbs and consumer establishments like hotels, restaurants and movie theaters. (RELATED: Ford, Domino’s Testing Pizza Delivery With No Drivers)

Regardless if Andreessen’s predictions come true, many people are very excited about the advent of autonomous vehicles. The average person is willing to spend $4,900 more for a car that has driverless technologies, according to a fairly recent study conducted by Cornell University researchers. Some potential consumers even said they would be prepared to pay more than $10,000 for the automatic functions.

Now that the House has finally passed a bill on the technology, people may soon be able to reap any potential benefits.

The Senate is expected to introduce a companion bill sometime soon, but the outlook for that chamber of congress is not yet clear.

Follow Eric on Twitter

Send tips to eric@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel