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Michigan lawmakers have got-off the block earlier and have perhaps the most permissive laws in the country.  Our governor signed four bills that clear a path for the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles in December 2016.  Now U.S. House lawmakers are reviewing over a dozen driverless car and truck bills to create a national landscape.  Likewise, the U.S. Senate is also undertaking a similar effort.  Needless to say, the effort is daunting, and the laws currently on the books seem to create more questions than answers.  Most states don’t have any laws enacted yet, but that hasn’t stopped Uber, who launched a ride-hailing pilot project to test autonomous vehicles in my home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan is part of a bipartisan effort to ensure the United States will remain a leader in transportation innovation.  No doubt cybersecurity will need to be a top priority for self-driving vehicles.  What will driverless cars look like?  No surprise Google seems well positioned to have an impact.  But the day of “he said, she said” may be over and we will have all the data we need including how fast each vehicle was going, direction, braking, and more to determine how a crash occurred.  In sorting out who will be accountable, though, the jury is still out.

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