U.S. lawmakers and industry leaders are pushing for a national framework to govern self-driving cars and increase domestic manufacturing.
Leaders spoke at an event hosted by Axios in Washington, D.C., while drivers raced through the nation’s capital during qualifying rounds for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.
Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Indiana, called for movement on the SELF DRIVE Act, legislation that would put self-driving cars under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s authority, require more crash data sharing and increase safety requirements.
Houchin said the federal government needs to move forward with legislation because of the role self-driving cars play in interstate commerce.
“The roadway doesn’t stop at the state line,” Houchin said. “This is going to be a really important piece of legislation to enable self-driving cars all across the United States.”
Houchin said the pace of the congressional calendar has prevented federal clarity of self-driving car regulation to be put in place.
“There’s a lot of things on the agenda that we have a limited window to accomplish before this Congress ends in December,” Houchin said. “I think it’s a factor of time, not willingness, necessarily.”
Houchin also called for an increase in domestic vehicle manufacturing and steeper regulations on foreign adversarial nations. She supported a ban on cars sold in the United States that were manufactured in China.
“It’s a concern with China being an adversary of ours to have some of this tech that we may or may not know what’s coming into the country,” Houchin said.
Noriya Kaihara, executive vice president of Honda, said the company is working to further collaborate with the Trump administration’s efforts to increase domestic car manufacturing. He touted the importance of the North American Free Trade Agreement as a resource for manufacturing funds but called on renewed trade agreements in the region.
“The trilateral agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada will enable us to produce all the products which are affordable to our customers,” Kaihara said.
Kaihara said hybrid vehicles are key to the future of automobile production in the United States. He said demand for the vehicles has rapidly increased over the last four years, reflected in Honda’s sales figures.
“The hybrid system provides value to our customers without changing their lifestyle,” Kaihara said. “Affordability is the key to our customers at this moment. So, we are producing high efficiency vehicles for that.”
Kinsey Fabrizio, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, said she is skeptical of the ability for domestic manufacturing to be fully brought back to the United States. She encouraged companies to invest with friendly foreign nations to increase manufacturing reliability while maintaining current efficiency standards.
“Make sure that you are working with other friendly partner countries that are democracies and have the same ideals and workforce scenarios that you want for your company and look into those relationships as well,” Fabrizio said.
She said future manufacturing in the United States will be dependent on robotics and automated technology.
Fabrizio also said self-driving cars are at an inflection point in the United States and praised Houchin’s calls for a federal framework on the technology.
“When you don’t have a framework, you have 50 different states that companies have to try to comply with,” Fabrizio said. “It’s really challenging. It’s costly. It’s confusing. It creates a patchwork approach.”
