How Not To Prepare For the Self-Driving Revolution
As California adopts new regulations limiting the testing of autonomous vehicles (AVs), leaders in other states seem eager to jump in and seize a piece of the AV action. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe recently claimed he would make the state the “capital of autonomous vehicles,” and the state’s transportation director, Aubrey Layme, invited any company to launch a pilot program on Virginia highways. “We have no rules that prohibit autonomous vehicles, no law,” he said. Meanwhile Arizona Governor Doug Ducey basked in the spotlight when Google’s Waymo picked up passengers in autonomous SUVs in April, just a few months after Uber’s Otto subsidiary sent an autonomous tractor trailer loaded with beer on a 120-mile journey from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.
So governors are excited about autonomous vehicles, and they are eager to compete with California. That’s understandable, even if they haven’t always offered thoughtful rules about AV deployment. But when compared to alternative approaches, racing to host headline-grabbing AV-testing milestones offers little promise to create jobs or improve lives.
Of course, any elected official seeking reelection needs media coverage, and AV pilots can provide that (especially outside of California, which they are less remarkable). Colorado’s robot beer delivery made quite a splash: A Google News search for “Colorado Uber Autonomous Truck” yields more than 3,000 stories. But the attention faded quickly after the test took place last October. Only six of those pieces were written in April or May.
Still, leaders like Colorado Department of Transportation head Shailen Bhatt see splashy AV tests as an opportunity to give their state the halo of innovation—and promote economic development. “We are open to any technology solution, and we want the private sector to know that Colorado is open for business,” he said. That’s laudable, but it’s hard to see why a business would relocate because of a one-off event like the Uber pilot, particularly to a state that doesn’t have a significant auto industry or offer a steady stream of talent from a top university research program around transportation or robotics.