Look for Autonomous Technology will be deployed gradually
Already, cars on the roads are equipped with features like emergency braking and lane departure warning systems that rely on the same types of artificial intelligence systems that self-driving cars will ultimately use.
But the deployment of fully autonomous cars will be stagnated, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers President and CEO Mitch Bainwol said during the panel, which was hosted by Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE).
"This is alive in the now, but it is also important to realize that this is both a moment and a journey," Bainwol said.
American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear agreed with the assessment, saying that vehicles will gradually begin to drive themselves more and more.
He pointed to the announcement this week that an Otto truck autonomously drove 150 miles to deliver Budweiser beers as an example of how the technology will be deployed.
In that case, a human truck driver operated the vehicle until it got to the highway, where it was then able to drive itself.
"We won't be taking the driver out of the cab for a really long time," he said. "What we are talking about here and now is hitting an autopilot button."
Although there are many factors in determining how fast more fully automated vehicles hit the roads, one of the known unknowns is how the issue might ultimately be politicized.
While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration came out with guidelines for automakers last month, all members of the panel agreed that Congress would likely ultimately have to step in to either help the technology or give the Department of Transportation new regulatory authority.
"The question is, does this become a partisan issue and is there a way to keep it from being a partisan issue?" SAFE President Robbie Diamond asked.
Though both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have expressed their broad support for the technology, that could change as they confront more specific issues, said Henry Claypool, policy director of the Community Living Policy Center at the University of California, San Francisco.
"I don't know that the public has weighed in in a significant enough way so far," he said. "But as this becomes more tangible, we will begin to see how various representatives choose to address it. Right now, [the technology] is somewhat removed from the general population, and I think that is changing quickly."
Bainwol agreed, saying that the current objectives of using autonomous cars to reduce road fatalities are bipartisan but that questions of how to regulate the technology "do inject partisan issues." Ariel Wittenberg/E&Enews