ICYMI: Peters Highlights Need for Autonomous Vehicle Framework to Remain Competitive with Chinese Government, Other Foreign Countries

WASHINGTON, DC – During an Axios event on the future of American-made autonomous vehicles, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) highlighted the urgent need to support the development, deployment, and manufacturing of autonomous vehicles in the U.S. Peters stressed the need for a federal regulatory framework that keeps the United States the global leader in AV technology and would make consumers safer, increase mobility, protect our national security, and boost our economic competitiveness – especially as the Chinese government continues to make significant investments in AV technology and deployment. With more than 40,000 deaths on U.S. roadways as a result of car crashes, Peters stressed the opportunity AV technology presents for improving safety and reducing fatalities and injuries.

“From a competitive standpoint there’s no question that it’s absolutely essential that this technology gets developed and deployed here. We’re facing significant international competition from other countries that understand that autonomy represents the future of mobility…. We know the Chinese [government] are investing massive amounts of money in AI. They understand that from an economic competitive standpoint, they want to be the center of AI, they want to be the center of mobility… I want to make sure that we are at the forefront of that and are the economic leader, especially from Michigan to make sure that our domestic automakers are at the forefront of that. It's critical for jobs, and critical for us to make sure that our technology is cutting edge,” said Senator Peters.  

Click here to watch Senator Peters’ full remarks.

“We need to look at every possible avenue to put forward a plan that will give some certainty…as to what the regulatory environment looks like whether it’s legislation, whether it’s rulemaking, whether it’s actions that the Department of Transportation can take…The impediment we have right now is the fact that we don't have that kind of regulatory certainty for auto companies in the United States to go beyond the testing phase and start scaling up….They can scale up in China because their regulatory system, let's say, works a whole lot differently than what we have here in the United States, which gives them a competitive advantage... I think we have a competitive advantage with the quality of our engineers, and the ability to innovate in this country is absolutely unparalleled. But we've got to make sure that the regulatory framework allows that to flourish in a way that also is safe,” he continued.

The Chinese government has made extensive investments in autonomous vehicle technology and committed to a regulatory environment to try to win the AVs race including testing, deployment, and manufacturing. The Chinese government released an AV roadmap indicating that by 2030 they aim to have 70% of new cars to be equipped with partial or full autonomous driving capability. The rate of new investments in China-based AV startups more than doubled from 2020 to 2021, while the rate of venture capital investments in American AV startups declined during the same period. Third Way predicts the global market for technology used in AVs could be worth over $14 trillion before 2050 – although without increased regulatory certainly for manufacturers, the U.S. risks ceding the market share to countries like China.

As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports, Peters has been focused on ensuring there is a federal framework to safely develop, test and deploy advanced AVs. Last year, he led nearly a dozen of his Senate colleagues in highlighting to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a letter the need to develop a comprehensive framework for AVs to not only create good-paying American jobs, to save lives, and to ensure the U.S. will continue leading in the future of mobility – while boosting our economic competitiveness. Peters also recently raised the issue with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, stressing during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing the importance of making strategic economic investments, including in AVs, to counter the Chinese government.

Among his other efforts, last Congress Peters secured a provision in the CHIPS and Science Act to create a $2 billion incentive fund to support the domestic production of mature semiconductor technologies used by the auto industry. He held a hearing to assess how automotive innovation in the U.S. will influence the future of vehicle safety, mobility, and technology in a global economy. He also held a field hearing Peters convened in Detroit in which experts examined how Congress can unlock innovation for electric and autonomous vehicles by increasing domestic production of semiconductor chips and other technologies, while also delivering economic, environmental, and safety benefits for the American people. Peters has worked to advance a regulatory framework for AV technology and previously authored comprehensive AV legislation that passed through the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

Peters has also worked to advance Cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) technology, an intelligent transportation system technology that enables data sharing between vehicles, the infrastructure they operate on and nearby road users – which improves roadway safety and efficiency. In April, the FCC announced they will approve deployment of these lifesaving technologies after Peters led a letter in February urging them to do so. He also helped secure over $9.8 million through the bipartisan infrastructure law for the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to deploy this technology in Ann Arbor – which is paving the way for Michigan to be at the forefront of the development and deployment of this technology.

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