VIDEO: At Senate Hearing, Peters Pushes for Harnessing Emerging Technology to Advance U.S. Transportation Industry

WASHINGTON, DC - During a hearing in the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Ranking Member of the subcommittee, emphasized the need to harness new technologies to improve safety, lower costs, boost U.S. economic competitiveness, and create American jobs in the transportation industry. Peters also reiterated the need to ensure emerging technologies support, not replace, the transportation workforce.

"I have long advocated for harnessing technological innovation to combat the challenges we face in the transportation sector, from unsafe roads to harmful environmental impacts to freight and infrastructure challenges that raise prices for everyday Americans," Peters said in his opening remarks. "Technology has the potential to improve safety and productivity for American workers, including America's truck drivers, if we play our cards right. But technology should also create good-paying American jobs, which is why I believe we must develop and manufacture it here at home."

To watch the full video of Senator Peters' opening remarks and questions, click here.

During the hearing, Peters also called for Congress to pass a bipartisan regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles (AV) to improve roadway safety, cement U.S. economic competitiveness, and protect American jobs. Throughout his time in the Senate, Peters has championed efforts to advance a set of "rules of the road" for AVs in the United States and repeatedly pushed for an AV regulatory framework to help usher in safe adoption of this technology.

"For years, I have said that Congress cannot continue to stand on the sidelines when it comes to these AVs. I believe we must pass a federal AV framework to harness the safety benefits of this technology, ensure that it is deployed responsibly, and cement U.S. leadership in the development, manufacturing, and deployment on our roads," said Peters.

Peters reiterated how AVs and other emerging vehicle technologies can make transportation safer for Americans across the United States.

Peters continued, "Every year, 40,000 Americans die on our highways, and nearly 1,000 die on our railways. These aren't just numbers, they are families that will never be whole again. We must take action, and we know that technology is certainly part of the solution. I believe it will require government, industry, labor, and advocates coming together to address this safety crisis and to ensure that technology is deployed across our transportation system in a way that benefits all Americans."

Peters also emphasized that leading the development and deployment of transportation technology is critical to U.S. national security.

"For example, today's vehicle technologies have advanced sensor suites that collect and utilize a huge amount of data, which would be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands," Peters said. "That's why I have pushed to keep Chinese vehicles and vehicle technologies out of the United States, and why I want to hear from our witnesses today about protecting Americans' data from exploitation by our adversaries as well as here at home."

Throughout his time in the Senate, Peters has consistently fought to support Michigan's automotive sector and advocated for responsible adoption of innovative vehicle technologies. During a hearing on autonomous vehicles earlier this year, Peters emphasized the need for the upcoming surface transportation bill to include policies to guide the safe deployment of AVs on our roads to ensure American innovators pave the way on autonomous technologies.

Leveraging his role on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Peters has consistently fought to advance provisions in funding legislation to help accelerate the safe development of cutting-edge vehicle technology. This includes $13.9 million secured in recent funding legislation for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Office of Automation Safety and $3.5 million for NHTSA's Partnership for Analytics Research in Traffic Safety (PARTS) Program, which focuses on collaboration between automakers and federal agencies to share data on, and improve the performance of, advanced driver assistance systems. In 2025, he also introduced bipartisan legislation that would allow NHTSA to expand its research of emerging driver assistance systems, helping to improve roadway safety for Americans.

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