The rise of self-driving cars will be part of a broader U.S. economic struggle pegged to American jobs, Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told reporters last week. Both chambers are prioritizing legislation on autonomous vehicles this year (see 1702140042). “It’s going to be a challenge, but like a lot of things in technology, like a lot of aspects of technology, we can’t legislate it away from happening,” said Schatz. “We have to facilitate it moving forward where possible, make sure that the safety and privacy concerns are addressed and then deal with the society-wide problem of automation dislocating workers who used to do these important jobs.” Many of the workers who will be dislocated have done those other activities “their whole lives -- it’s not realistic to go tell them to become a tech worker,” he said. “This is happening economy-wide, and I think it’s a little simplistic to just say, ‘Well, we’re just going to retrain these folks.’ A lot of these jobs that we would theoretically be retraining folks for aren’t in the same county or state.” The answer is “not so simple,” with no obvious fix for policymakers, he said.

Consumer Watchdog, alleging self-driving truck company Otto is illegally testing its technology on California roads, wants the Department of Motor Vehicles to revoke the Uber-owned company's registrations. John Simpson, the advocacy group's privacy project director, said in a Wednesday news release that 21 companies have gotten permits to test their self-driving tech "with no problem. Moreover, self-driving vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds cannot be tested in the state under current regulations. Otto’s robot trucks fail on both counts. They have no permits and they weigh too much.” Consumer Watchdog, which filed its complaint with the DMV Tuesday, also said Uber can't be trusted because it's doing mapping operations in San Francisco with cars that aren't operating in self-driving mode. "Based on Otto’s behavior, there is absolutely no reason to take Uber’s word for anything," said Simpson, who wants Uber's car registrations to be revoked again. In December, the company began a self-driving pilot in San Francisco similar to Pittsburgh but the DMV pulled the cars' registrations after the company refused to get a permit to test the technology. Uber said at the time it didn't need a test permit because a human was either controlling or monitoring the cars (see 1701300012). The company didn't comment now.

Opening up the Uber platform to Daimler on autonomous driving will get the ride-hailing service “to the future faster than going it alone,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in a Tuesday blog post. “It’s a future in which our cities and roads will be safer, cleaner and more accessible, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s next.” Uber is incredibly excited by the potential for “self-driving cars to further our mission of bringing reliable transportation to everyone, everywhere,” Kalanick said. “They will also help to reduce traffic accidents, which today kill many people a year; free up the huge amount of space currently used to park the world’s billion-plus cars; and cut congestion, which is choking our cities.” The company “can’t do it alone,” he said. Automakers like Daimler “are crucial to our strategy because Uber has no experience making cars -- and in fact, making cars is really hard,” he said.

A consumer advocacy group wants San Francisco police to keep tabs on Uber's self-driving car program, launched in mid-December, but which now is only being used for mapping purposes. Consumer Watchdog Monday sent a letter to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D) to request Police Chief Bill Scott "closely monitor" the company's autonomous cars. “Based on Uber’s past performance when they flouted California law and put their robot cars on the road without the required permits from the [California Department of Motor Vehicles], there is absolutely no reason to trust the company now,” wrote John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog privacy project director. He wrote that Uber's cars were seen going through red lights when they were first deployed and the company blamed the human test driver. In a news release announcing the letter, Simpson wrote Uber didn't want to get the permits from the DMV because it didn't want to share information about its test activities. The DMV requires companies testing self-driving technology on public streets to file "disengagement reports" when the tech fails or test driver has to intervene, Simpson said. Uber Head-Advanced Technology Group Anthony Levandowski wrote in a Dec. 14 blog post that when San Francisco riders request an UberX ride, the company's lowest-cost option, they will be matched with a self-driving car, if available. That program was halted after a week when regulators revoked vehicle registrations since the company didn't want to get a permit for testing self-driving cars. Levandowski said at the time it didn't need permits since the cars weren't ready to be driven without a person monitoring them. An Uber spokeswoman emailed that the company is pleased with the similar Pittsburgh pilot launched in September. Self-driving Uber cars "are on the road in Arizona for internal use at this time, but are not a part of our public operations," she said. She pointed to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that said Uber had several glitches with that city's program and issues with regulators, prompting the company to halt the pilot in December with the self-driving systems disabled and the cars used only for mapping.

More than 69 million light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors will ship in 2026, led by autonomous driving functions including obstacle detection and simultaneous localization and mapping, ABI Research reported Wednesday. Declining hardware costs and carmakers' need to ship vehicles with multiple sensors for 360-degree vehicle coverage will drive growth, said ABI. At CES, Innoviz Technologies and LeddarTech were among the lidar developers demonstrating low-cost solid state solutions for mainstream deployment, said analyst James Hodgson, with the latter announcing a partnership with tier one automotive manufacturer Valeo last year. Market leader Velodyne received a $150 million infusion from Ford and Baidu in 2016 and will develop a sub-$50 solid state system for widespread implementation, he said. Last year saw the “necessary formation of new investments, startups, and ecosystem partnerships for lidar to hit the ground running in the 2019 to 2020 timeframe,” said Hodgson. “The universal focus on low-cost solutions to enable autonomous functions on high-volume models will accelerate lidar shipments throughout the next decade.”

Two consumer groups want President-elect Donald Trump to "fire" General Motors CEO Mary Barra from co-chairing the recently announced Department of Transportation committee that will review challenges, opportunities and best practices related to automation, which is projected to play a bigger role in buses, cars, drones, trains and planes (see 1701110048). Barra "should not lead a panel recommending how to deploy her company's automated vehicles," wrote Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court, the group's Privacy Project Director John Simpson and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways Chairwoman Joan Claybrook in a Thursday letter to Trump. "We are also appalled that not a single consumer, citizen or auto safety survivor’s group sits on this industry-dominated panel and ask that you restructure the rest of this advisory committee so it includes members of consumer advocacy groups and true representatives of the public interest." Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) will co-chair the 25-member panel, which includes representatives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Lyft, Uber and Zipcar, plus academics, insurers and others. The consumer groups' letter said companies like GM and others "are rushing to deploy robot car technology and will not offer unbiased advice." The advisory panel should be focusing on developing privacy and security measures and standards, the consumer groups said, but companies selling robot cars "have shown little willingness to protect our data." The panel is "likely to backfire" because their advice will be called into question, which could potentially set back development of the technology, the groups said. The Trump transition team didn't comment.

The Department of Transportation said it formed an advisory committee on automation, including the development and deployment of self-driving vehicles. A Wednesday DOT news release said the committee, which will hold its first meeting Monday, will also help the department determine needs involving research, policy and regulations. "This new automation committee will work to advance life-saving innovations while boosting our economy and making our transportation network more fair, reliable, and efficient," said Secretary Anthony Foxx. General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will co-chair the 25-member committee. Other members include: Information Technology Industry Council President Dean Garfield; Uber regional general manager Rachel Holt; former Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson, now Apple vice president-environment, policy and social initiatives; John Krafcik, CEO of Google's Waymo; Amazon Senior Corporate Counsel-Aviation Gerry Murphy; and former US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who's now CEO of Safety Reliability Methods.

The market for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicles will reach $144 billion in global revenue by 2025, said Juniper Research in a Tuesday news release. The market research firm said ADAS adoption is expected to increase rapidly over the next five years, though it still lacks significant mass market penetration. Several factors will account for this: reduced hardware costs, especially sensors; more governmental interest in self-driving cars due to safety and environmental reasons, with commercial companies such as ride-sharing providers leading the way; and stricter safety "specifications" for "vulnerable road users such as pedestrians."

Consumer Watchdog used Google’s name change for its self-driving car unit -- Waymo -- to promote the need for more disclosure to the public about the way “robot car systems” work. Consumers should be made aware of the ethical choices programmed into autonomous vehicles’ “secret algorithms,” Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson said in a statement Tuesday. “Admitting that robot cars aren't really ready to be put on our roads without steering wheels and the capability for a human driver to take control is an important acknowledgment of reality," said Simpson. Google said Waymo is short for "way forward in mobility."

CTA hailed Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for signing into law Friday a legislative package (SB-995) that will allow full testing of autonomous vehicles in the state. "Self-driving and connected cars have the potential to reduce more than 90 percent of accidents caused by human error, provide previously unimagined independence to seniors and the visually impaired, eliminate hours wasted in traffic and minimize congestion,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a Friday statement. “To truly harness these benefits, we need more states to embrace Michigan's model to allow for efficient and safe testing of self-driving vehicles.” The Michigan legislature approved SB-995 and sent it to Snyder for his signature in November.