{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/speeches/opening-statement-by-ranking-member-reed-at-thud-hearing-on-automated-and-self-driving-vehicles", "Opening Statement by Ranking Member Reed at THUD Hearing on Automated and Self-Driving Vehicles", "2016-11-16", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "RI", "Jack Reed", "R000122", "www.reed.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11/16/2016\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Thank you, Chairman Collins, for your leadership and for holding this important hearing on the future of self-driving vehicles.\u00a0I want to thank all of our witnesses for taking the time to share their expertise on this issue with us today.\r\nAutomated and self-driving vehicles are not yet common on our roads, but autonomous driving and safety features, such as automatic emergency brakes and parking assist have been introduced gradually over the last several years. Manufacturers and innovators are now poised to take transformative leaps in the development, integration, and adoption of these technologies.\u00a0\r\nWhat was once novel is at the brink of becoming commonplace. As with any change, it brings opportunity, as well as risk and anxiety -- particularly for the millions of Americans who earn a living as commercial drivers.\u00a0What remains unanswered is how this transportation revolution will evolve and what steps regulators and industry should take to foster and harness the positive aspects of new technology.\u00a0\r\nToday, auto manufacturers, ridesharing companies, and other investors are funding research and development on driverless vehicles. They are also launching pilot programs to gather data and introduce consumers to different forms of this technology. Uber is allowing customers in Pittsburgh to share rides in self-driving cars. \u00a0Otto, which is a self-driving bus and truck company owned by Uber, autonomously delivered commercial goods just last month.\u00a0Tesla is collecting millions of miles of data from its semi-autonomous vehicles and has announced that it will potentially make a fully autonomous vehicle starting next year. \u00a0Google has been designing and testing cars with no human driver in mind for several years in California.\u00a0And GM and Lyft have partnered to build an autonomous fleet that will be available for ridesharing.\u00a0\r\nThese companies are all using different strategies to achieve seemingly different goals. Some seek to provide efficient, accessible, and cost-effective transportation similar to transit.\u00a0Others want to improve freight transportation through fleets of autonomous trucks that can save gas and operate around the clock.\u00a0\r\nWhat is clear is that technology is fundamentally changing vehicles as we know them.\u00a0This innovation has the potential to dramatically improve highway safety, as well as expand mobility access for thousands of people.\u00a0In 2015, more than 35,000 people died in crashes on our nation\u2019s highways. That number represented an 8 percent increase from the previous year and marked the deadliest year on record since 2008.\u00a0NHTSA found that 94 percent of those deaths were the result of human error. Self-driving vehicles could eliminate many of these crashes, injuries, and deaths.\r\nWe have a responsibility to fulfil this technology\u2019s promise and foster American innovation.\u00a0We also must be cognizant of the consequences of these technological shifts for the American economy and American workers.\u00a0Self-driving cars and trucks will certainly demand new kinds of jobs and skills, but those jobs may be in different sectors of the economy.\u00a0\r\nFor millions of Americans, particularly those without a college degree or advanced training, driving a bus, a cab, or a truck can provide a decent income.\u00a0In the latest year of data available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there are more than 4 million workers in the United States employed as drivers of trucks, taxis, chauffeurs, or delivery vehicles.\r\nDriverless technology may help make these physically-demanding jobs a little easier, but it will likely also render them obsolete.\u00a0We need to think through how to respond to those outcomes and how to help the workforce adapt to inevitable technological change.\u00a0That is a broader conversation that should include the Department of Labor, local workforce boards, and unions.\u00a0Our regulatory agencies, from the local to the federal level, will also be challenged by the rate of continued innovation.\u00a0We need to ask whether federal regulators have the tools and funding to respond quickly in the face of rapid technological change.\r\nNHTSA recently released a guidance document for comment with the intent of promoting technological advancement and preventing a patchwork of state regulations.\u00a0I want to thank you, Administrator Rosekind, for your hard work, but this guidance still leaves many questions unanswered.\r\n\u2022 \u00a0When will NHTSA initiate a formal rulemaking on self-driving vehicles?\r\n\u2022 \u00a0When and how will the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards be updated?\u00a0\r\n\u2022 \u00a0How much data does NHTSA want to collect from industry and consumers, and how will it protect that data from cyber threats?\r\nWe know industry will continue to innovate, develop, and deploy technology at a faster pace than the federal regulatory process, and this will present a challenge to maintain our safety and security in a new era of mobility.\r\nI want to once again thank our witnesses for participating in our hearing today, and I look forward to a conversation that will inform our work going forward.\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/speeches/opening-statement-by-ranking-member-reed-at-thud-hearing-on-automated-and-self-driving-vehicles"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9296049140393734, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}