Senior officials from Tesla, Waymo, and others tell Congress to speed legislation on the deployment of self-driving vehicles

Executives from self-driving car companies Waymo LLC and Tesla testified at the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday about the future of federal regulation in the industry. The firms’ officials urged Congress to speed legislation on the deployment of self-driving vehicles, warning of competitive threats from China.

The Senate hearing included testimony from Waymo, Tesla, and others on efforts to accelerate the deployment of robotaxis by those companies. Congress is also focused on legislation that would make it easier for firms to deploy robotaxis without human controls.

U.S. self-driving companies warn of China’s threat to the AV industry

Democratic Senator Gary Peters argued that self-driving technology is a huge part of the future of the global automotive industry. He also pointed out that Beijing is heavily investing in the production of autonomous vehicles. The U.S. official added that it’s imperative that the Trump administration take action to ensure American innovation and standards lead the way on the world stage, rather than China.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz called for modernizing regulations on self-driving vehicles. He argued that innovation won’t stop if Congress fails to act fast, but U.S. officials will simply push it elsewhere. Cruz also acknowledged that China is aggressively working to deploy autonomous transportation at scale.

Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer, Mauricio Pena, urged Congress to pass legislation to advance autonomous vehicles in the U.S. He argued that U.S. leadership in self-driving companies is currently under threat from Chinese companies. 

Waymo’s official acknowledged that the U.S. and Chinese AV companies are competing for the future of autonomous driving. Pena said the firm considers autonomous vehicles a trillion-dollar industry, on par with the importance of flight and space travel.

Pena believes that greater certainty in the industry will unlock more investment. He also argued that greater certainty will prevent bad actors from undermining public trust in the AV technology.

Pena also cautioned that Chinese self-driving companies are scaling rapidly due to state support. Chinese AV companies have the largest AV fleets in the world, followed by Waymo. He believes that the absence of U.S. leadership on national AV legislation will make Chinese AV competitors set the safety and technical standards for the rest of the industry.

Waymo reports incidents with its autonomous vehicles

The Senate hearing comes as multiple U.S. states are allowing Waymo’s self-driving vehicles despite the company’s autonomous cars having had recent incidents. A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated a probe into Waymo late last year after at least 19 incidents in Austin in which Waymo vehicles drove past stopped school buses. One of the firm’s automobiles also struck a student in Santa Monica, California.

Justin Kintz, Waymo’s Head of Global Public Policy, argued that the incidents are edge cases, given that the company is taking over 400,000 trips per week. He also argued that the Santa Monica incident was likely better handled as a person-driven incident.

Cruz also pointed to the potential for autonomous vehicles to minimize traffic, reduce crashes, and help people with disabilities gain independence. He believes that a flurry of federal and state laws would make it much more difficult to introduce safer, more advanced self-driving vehicles into the industry. 

The Senate chair is confident that Wednesday’s hearing examined how outdated regulations are holding back lifesaving technology and that Congress’s plan to fix it. Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy and Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association CEO Jeff Farrah also testified at today’s hearing.

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