The driverless industry has suffered a major setback. The US government’s subordinate committee is on the verge of dissolution.

Netease Technology News August 26, according to CNBC reported that at the US governors’ meeting in February this year, Minister of Communications Elaine Chao promised that she will quickly take action to help more unmanned cars get on the road. However, just six months later, the Trump administration actually braked many efforts to advance this technology, which can redefine Americans' travel patterns, reduce traffic congestion and save lives.

Photo: On August 15, 2017, US President Trump speaks at an infrastructure conference held at Trump Tower, accompanied by Minister of Communications Zhao Xiaolan.

As technology and automotive giants make steady progress in testing and developing driverless cars, the U.S. government still lacks key safety regulators to monitor and study this emerging industry. At the same time, a number of sources revealed that the board of directors consisting of Apple, Ford, General Motors, Lyft, and other technology and automotive giants—the Federal Advisory Council focused on driverless technology—has completely been at a standstill.

The agency's official name is "Federal Committee on Automation", which held its first meeting on January 16th, just a few days before the departure of former US President Barack Obama. Sources said that since then, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti have not met.

A Lyft spokesperson also said that the company’s president, John Zimmer, actually resigned “after some time”. This happened before many business leaders withdrew from the White House-backed company advisory board on the grounds that Trump had issued controversial comments on the new Nazi demonstration in Charlottesville, Va.

At the same time, a spokeswoman for Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s unmanned car subsidiary, said that they believe that the “special task force” of the Obama era is no longer active under Trump’s leadership. A U.S. Department of Communications spokesperson said in July that the agency “is still reviewing how best to use the committee and that the committee should pay attention to the specific areas of the problem.”

On the one hand, the entry of driverless cars into the “driving lane” is not entirely unexpected because the Trump administration continues to debate major transportation policies and decide which federal projects to keep or replace. However, the snail's speed of these decision-making efforts is in stark contrast to the "comprehensive blitzkrieg" launched by Capitol Hill. Last month, the House Committee of the House of Representatives proposed a bill to help companies like GM and Google seek more exemptions from federal safety regulations, which may allow them to test up to 100,000 experimental unmanned vehicles in the United States. car. The Senate is also taking similar measures.

However, this is where the many troubles of the Trump administration began. As the House of Representatives began discussing legislation in June, they had to discuss without the absence of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the main US government traffic regulator. This is because Trump had not yet nominated anyone to be the director of this institution at that time, and it was not until late August that the president still failed to select a candidate.

Finally, the NHTSA must have the primary responsibility for implementing any bill passed by the National Assembly. To this end, it was unnerving to many Democrats that it had abstained from hearings, and they later voted to advance the self-driving car bill. Earlier this year, Frank Pallone, a New Jersey congressman, said: "We should not remove the bill from the committee until we receive news from the government."

Consumer safety advocates are also skeptical. Consumers Union’s director of automotive, product policy and analytics, David Friedman, said: "For me, lack of leaders is hard to say whether they should be optimistic or pessimistic, because I don't know they will open the gate and take a hurry. There are many risks of introducing this technology, or whether they need reasonable ways to protect people."

Previously, Friedman served as an acting director of NHTSA under Obama. At the time, he said in an interview that NHTSA made it clear that they would make full use of enforcement tools to prevent car manufacturers from failing to protect the safety of drivers and passengers. However, under the leadership of Trump, the action of this lack of competent regulatory agencies is still unpredictable.

Other similar federal jobs are still vacant, including the third most important position in the Department of Transportation. In April of this year, Trump appointed Lyft's managing director, Derek Kan, to serve in this key policy position. Kan is well acquainted with federal traffic law. He was an advisor to the American Rail Corporation and has close ties with current Minister of Communications Zhao Xiaolan and the latter’s husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In general, Kan is always considered to be the "hands-on" for this role. But the leader of Lyft has still not been approved by the Senate, despite the support of technology and car giants, hoping that he will become the spokesperson for driverless car policy in the future.

Senior officials in the U.S. government said they still have many staff members managing challenging industries like driverless cars. David Strickland, president of NHTSA during Obama’s time, is currently lobbying for Ford, Google, Uber and other driverless car companies. He said: “The work of NHTSA has not stopped.”

Strickland said that Zhao Xiaolan’s promise encouraged him, including his speech at the Governor’s meeting earlier this year, when she promised to update the federal government’s current voluntary safety standards. Strickland said: “I hope we will see the updated guide soon.” This guide was signed by Obama in September 2016. It recommends (but does not require) companies such as Ford, Google, and Ubre. Submit security checks and more data, including submitting car accidents and other incidents to the federal government for review.

For Zhao Xiaolan, the transportation department she is heading should modify the blueprint for driverless cars. According to a government source familiar with the process, she is expected to announce her plans in September this year. For Friedman, the existing standards have given the industry quite a few opportunities. However, the Trump administration has barely commented on its preferred approach, which has led to speculation. He said: "This represents a risk, not just progress. What the government can do is to let them leap forward with no distractions."

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