Congress

A coalition of organizations representing public health and safety professionals, smart growth advocates, bicyclists, pedestrians, consumers, first responders, and individuals with disabilities urged the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee to ensure that future tragedies like exploding Takata airbags are not repeated with the mass deployment of experimental autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars. Both the Takata recall and the tragic crash late Sunday where an Uber being driven in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian show what happens when vehicles are allowed on public roads without proper government safeguards and oversight.

The Nation’s leading state and national groups representing public health and safety, bicyclists, pedestrians, disability communities, consumers, law enforcement, environmentalists, first responders, smart growth advocates and crash victims’ families urge Senate leaders to make essential improvements to legislation addressing autonomous vehicles, or driverless cars, the AV START Act (S.1885) and to disregard the artificial urgency to rush the bill through. This diverse coalition clearly demonstrates widespread alarm and skepticism about the industry’s unfounded and unreliable arguments about the urgent need to pass this flawed bill.