State-Dependent Motor Vehicle Safety and Public Safety: Comments on a Democrat-Independent Sen. Ed Markey (R-Mass.)
While the federal government has largely taken a back seat in regulatingautonomous vehicles, states are left to develop their own rules for safe deployment. There are disagreements over a number of aspects of the bill, including safety, liability and the right number of exemptions from federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Over the past decade, Congress has taken up several proposals with little to show for them. And its unclear whether major differences will be settled by the time the next opportunity arises.
Duffy didn’t say anything more about stepping into a role that could put him at odds with Musk. He said that there needs to be national legislation to better regulate the safe deployment of self-drive vehicles. He said that.
This is not just a wonderful technology that has a potential of making our roads safer, but this is a national security issue. We can’t fall behind China or other countries as it comes to AV technology. Right now, we have a patchwork of laws from state to state. I believe there has to be a federal law by which all of these innovators can abide by it, no matter if they’re in Texas or in California or somewhere else. And again, I’ll always make sure that safety is key. But after safety, we want to give a wide runway for these companies to create products that can change how we receive items, how we travel, and more.
Federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the DOT, are investigating crashes involving Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance systems. And safety advocates fear the Trump administration could move to end those investigations, along with a crash reporting requirement that Tesla opposes.
He said he would let NHTSA do their investigation. I have not met a lot of the players in these spaces.
Duffy, a former Republican congressman, lobbyist, and Fox News personality, made the comments during his confirmation hearing Wednesday in front of the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked whether he could maintain objectivity in investigating Tesla, which is headed by Trump donor and supporter Elon Musk.
For a long time, Duffy was a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, representing a district in northern Wisconsin for over eight years. But beyond the St. Croix Crossing, he has relatively little direct experience in transportation — or leading a large organization like the DOT, which has a budget of more than $100 billion.
Sean Duffy, the Fox News House Speaker, Meets David Baldwin, C.C. Baldwin, J.R. Campos-Duffy and The Occasion: A Tale of Two Cities
The Department of Transportation includes the Federal Aviation Administration, which is in charge of the nation’s airspace, as well as agencies that regulate the nation’s railroads, and set safety standards for passenger cars, trucks and commercial vehicles.
WASHINGTON — When Republican Sean Duffy was in Congress, he worked with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to replace an 80-year-old bridge across the St. Croix River between his home state of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
More than a decade later, the relationships that the new bridge helped forge came up during the confirmation hearing for the Department of Transportation.
When I fly into Minneapolis, and drive up to Hayward, where I was born and raised, I cross that bridge,” he said. “I’m proud every single time for the bipartisan work that we did together, and I would like to continue that kind of work should I be confirmed.”
“Our efforts show that when we work together, we get important things done. In his introduction to the committee, Baldwin said that they hadn’t always agreed. I’m confident that Sean is the right person to handle this position in the upcoming administration.
At the confirmation hearing, Duffy committed to prioritizing safety on the roadways and in the air, and said he would “work to reduce the red tape that slows critical infrastructure projects, ensuring funds are spent efficiently.” He pledged to bring “tough love” to Boeing as regulators work to restore confidence in the struggling airplane maker. And Duffy said he would address the shortage of air traffic controllers, while hiring only “the best and the brightest” for those jobs.
Trump has used the Fox News Channel as a base for many of his nominees. But few have as much experience on camera as Duffy, who starred on MTV’s “The Real World: Boston” in 1997. He met his future wife Rachel Campos-Duffy, a fellow Fox News contributor, when they both starred on another MTV reality show. The couple’s nine children were present at Wednesday’s hearing.
It is close to home for me because my wife has survived a deadly head-on car crash.
Source: Trump’s Cabinet pick for secretary of transportation is Sean Duffy. Here’s what to know
What will he tell us about the Gateway Program? An open question for transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, and where he’d like to go
The outgoing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also had little direct experience in transportation before taking the reins. Billions of dollars from the bipartisan infrastructure law have been given to the department by Buttigieg.
Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) asked specifically about funding for the Gateway Program, a multi-billion dollar project to replace a series of crumbling rail tunnels and bridges connecting northern New Jersey to Manhattan.
Safety advocates are worried that Musk might try to influence federal agencies that regulate his businesses. His rocket company SpaceX has sometimes clashed with regulators at the FAA over its launch practices.
Duffy was asked if he could allow investigators to follow the evidence and operate objectively as part of their investigations.
When he was a congressman from rural Wisconsin, he voted against funding for Amtrak. But he said “this committee has spoken loudly about Amtrak and rail in their home communities.”
In case he is confirmed, if he is transportation secretary, he would visit the flooded areas of Tennessee and North Carolina, where major interstate highways were damaged.
“This is a real emergency,” he said. I will do my best to get the process done so that these communities can have access and roads that are functional again.