Good morning. Id like to call the subcommittee on Digital Congress and Consumer Protection to order. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement. Again, good morning and welcome to the first hearing of the 115th congress for the Digital Congress and Consumer Protection subcommittee. It is a pleasure to be with you today. Before we get started i want to changer name burgess and vicechairman for the work they did inon the subcommittee and recognize the new vice chair, the gentleman from mississippi, glad to have you on board and working forward to advancing an agenda that creates jobs and puts consumers first. I want to recognize the gentle lady from illinois, our Ranking Member, we will be working with her this congress and looking forward to work in a bipartisan fashion to grow the economy and protect consumers. As chairman, i look forward to working with all the members of the subcommittee to continue exploring areas in the Digital Academy creating new opportunities for economic growth, job creation and consumer empowmt in america. I recently had an opportunity to visit the auto show in washington, d. C. The showroom floors were filled with vehicles equipped with innovative features and newly designed systems promised to enhance the safety and mobility of our drivers experiences and also impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of the Auto Industry that build vehi e vehicles we could only dream about a short time ago. The Technological Advancements are nothing short of amazing. Today, the subcommittee will focus on driverless evacuation and attempt to completely transform our Transportation System. We will hear what testing is happening and what needs to happen and the time frame for that deployment. In 2015, there are over 35,000 lives tragically lost on our nations highways. Over 1,000 of these fatalities were in my home state of ohio. Based on early estimates, traffic fatalities in 2016 are even going to be higher. Unfortunately, we also know human error counts for over 90 of all the traffic accidents. These are startling statistics, however the emergence of Automated Vehicle technology and growing investments into fully selfdriving vehicles promises to significantly reduce lives lost on roads by decreasing traffic accidents making our roadway saver for all users. As the Auto Industry works to make selfdriving vehicles a reality, adequately testing them before putting them out for commercial deployment and Consumer Confidence that they are safe. Each of these settings, vehicle engineers and professional test drivers go through detailed assessments and inspections of vehicles to ensure compliance with crash worthiness and standards. Vehicles fy a vehicles overall structural integrity. Cars are put through thousands of tests to insure once a vehicle is on a dealers lot, it is safe for consumers and families. Fully selfdriving vehicles are intended to operate without the input or control of human drivers. No longer will a manufacturer be able to rely on drivers to take corrective action or assistive failure or unplanned roadway activity. Flexibility will be important to certify Technology Empowering selfdriving vehicles. As we discuss selfdrives vehicles today and steps to commercial deployment ill look forward to learning from witnesses how automakers and other entities are testing these technologies for future employment and how to facilitate Innovation Development to Automated Vehicle technology in this country. Ohios Transportation Research recently announced a significant investment into a Smart Mobility advanced Research Tech center in east city, ohio and testing selfdriving evacuation across thousands of acres of road courses. We need to know how to ensure more states take positive steps for testing for ward and make sure testing doesnt become a roadblock to innovation. Road testing is important for the successful safe deployment of selfdriving evacuation. Testing not only will provide automakers with data for evacuation as safe as possible but help build Consumer Confidence in this technology which is central to realizing the future benefits of selfdriving evacuation. I thank the witnesses for taking the time to be with us today and i look forward to a thoughtful and engaging discussion. At this time, i have about a minute left, and is there anyone on our side that would like to claim the minute . The chair recognizes the vicechairman. Thank you for calling this hearing to build on the su subsmes understanding of dr e driving these cars. The innovation of selfdriving cars has ability to provide countless cars to our Transportation System and invaluable safety enhancements that could save thousands of lives every year. Of particular to me is the benefits selfdriving cars would provide to americans with disabilities including those with intellectual disabilitieses unable to obtain drivers license s and must rely on friends and relatives an sometimes uncertain modes of transportation to get about their daily lives including running errands or just getting to a job. In the disability world transportation is widely viewed as a top impediment to success and advancement in society. Selfdriving cars could offer the Disability Community a tremendous opportunity. Were looking forward to hearing more about this. With that, i yield back. The gentleman yields back and the chair recognizes the gentle lady from illinois for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you so much. [ inaudible ] this is the first hearing of the newly Digital Congress and Consumer Protection committee. This is a subcommittee and i imiad glim i xwrad to see the name is where it belongs. It has important work the do on behalf of American Consumers and kicking off the congress with a hearing on auto safety, which comes as the number of deaths nationwide is increasing and Consumer Product safety. We need to recall effectiveness and safety issues before products are sold. Meanwhile newlings to poses challenges for cybersecurity and personal privacy. This subcommittee impacts everyday lives and we need to be watchdogs ensuring innovation occurs to the benefit of American Consumers. Chairman, i know we will be able to Work Together in a bipartisan way over the course of the congress. I also want to take a brief moment to welcome the new Democrat Members on this committee. [ inaudible ] and our members from the last congress of joe kennedy and [ inaudible ] im very excited to work with all of you and the rest of our subcommittee colleagues. Todays hearing continues our discussion of selfdriving cars where we left off in november. Selfdriving cars have the potential to greatly reduce the number of accidents caused by human error. However, we added testing and oversight to insure human error is not replacing vehicle error. I share the out to manufacturers optimism about the longterm promise of Autonomous Vehicles. Today, i want to focus on how we get there. While testing is necessary before we can confidently put consumers in selfdriving cars and what is that testing. The Just Trust Us approach simply doesnt work for passenger vehicles. Not after the industrys failure that weve seen from takata airbags to others, the longterm drivability depends on manufacturers and government working cooperatively to share data and promote safety. As we figure out testing we need to figure out the specifics how many waivers are necessary for the coming years and how specific those waivers should be. We need to decide what safety tests or standards are necessary. We need to determine how states and the federal government can best Work Together to insure safe roads. I want to apologize that i have to step out for a moment, as i told the chairman, i also have a Budget Committee meeting this morning. I hope to be back later to ask questions of our witnesses. I want to thank those that i met before this hearing for their time and their information. I want to thank you all for being here today. I now yield the remaining time to congresswoman matsui. Thank you very much, congresswoman for giving me time. The thomas evacuation have incredible potential to change so much more than just cars. This Technology Gives us a way to think about mobility. It has potential to expand access to seniors, americans with disabilities and so much many more who may not be able to drive today. This Technology Allows us to rethink urban landscapes and public space wes may no longer need for parking spaces. Perhaps most importantly, it promises safety benefits for american families. All of this innovation will rely upon connectivity placing new demands on our roads and high y highways and spectrum and infrastructure that powers wi wireless communications. We need a framework that insures we are building a connected future of the 21st century economy. Driverless cars will have an impact to both our local econ y economies, communities and global competitiveness. As we consider this landscape there is an Important Role for state and federal regulators and Technology Companies and manufacturers and congress to play in deploying this future. I look forward to working with all of you in this exciting area and yield back the balance of my time. The gentle lady yields back. Right now, i dont believe the chairman of the full committee is here. I will pass at this time and the chair will recognize for five minutes the chairman from new jersey, Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you. I want to start by congratula congratulating you on this newly named subcommittee to watch out for the little guy and very pleased that the words Consumer Protection once again appear in the committees name. Selfdriving cars is our obligation and i read something i think can sum up where we are, a decade ago selfdriving cars were a matter of debate, today, theyre an inevitability. Since we know theyre coming to the marketplace. Im pleased instead of talking about the potential benefits achieved in the out years we will get in the weeds a bit and i look forward to hearing where we are today as to testing and what needs to be done to establish these cars are reliable and safe. As i said in november, we need these vehicles to be safe not just when all cars on the road are autonomous but also in the decadeses of transition time when they share the road with human drivers. I look forward to hearing how innovators are using testing, modeling, analytics and tools that these vehicles are safe and can interact with other common obstacles on our roads such as bicyc bicyclist, pedestrians and wed covered snow and past. And how cybersecurities are in place to defend against hackers. Autonomous driving like many of the latest technologies have been created in this krg by hard working men and women, many are immigrants who bring amazing skills to our workforce. We are a nation of immigrants and any effort to put up road blocks there will put up road blocks to be ahead on the technology curve. As many as 47 of American Workers vulnerable to computerization we need way to help find new opportunities through education and training. Thank you again. I yield the remainder of my time to representative dingle. Oops, shes not here. Shes right here. How can i miss you with that beautiful dress . Okay. Im just going to talk loud. No ones ever said i didnt have a big mouth. Thank you for yielding, Ranking Member pallone. Theres never been a more exc e exciting time to be in the Auto Industry. Its a an honor to be a member of this community, too. The midwest is here. Hey, you know, its technology. Were trying to stay at the forefront of innovation technology. Theres never been a more exc e exciting time to be in the Auto Industry. Automated vehicles are not just something you read about in a Science Fiction novel, in reality, theyre are here and helping transform mobility and the transportation of people and goods. Transportations no longer the accurate word. Mobility is. In 2015, 35,092 people died on the road in this country. This would be a Public Health epidemic if it was in any other industry. Automated vehicles will help us save lives as many of my previous colleagues have noted since 94 of accidents are acontributedable to human error and an issue of international competiti competitiveness. They will be delivered globally whether we like it or not. I think its critical we take the lead in these potentially life saving advances or well lose our critical edge in this spacen my home state of michigan is leading the way in this area. Proud the americans for mobility in widow run will test certification in Automated Vehicles and just designated as automotive proving ground by d. O. T. Michigan, in a very bipartisan way, mr. Upton and the governor and others are dedicating resources to Automated Vehicles. Im happy to support it and that being said, safety has to be our top priority here. Nobody wants to let unsafe technologies on the road. We also dont want to prevent vehicle s that improve safety from reaching consumers eats. Im looking forward to working with the committee and stakeholders strike the balance to making sure innovation and consumers are kept safe. I yield back the remainder of my time. The gentle lady yields back. When the chairman arrives he will be given an opportunity to give his Opening Statements. We now conclude with the Opening Statements and the chair would like to remind members pursuant to Committee Rules all members Opening Statements will be made part of the record. We want to thank all of our witnesses for being with us today and taking the time to testify before the sub committee. Todays witnesses will have the opportunity to give Opening Statements followed by a round of questions for the members. Our witness panels for todays hearings will include mike ableson, the Vice President of global strategy of General Motors, mr. Anders karrberg, dr. Kalra, senior Information Science and codirector at the center for decisionmaking under uncertainty. Mr. Gill pratt, executive Technical Advisor and ceo at Toyota Research institute and mr. Joseph apaku, the Vice President of Public Policy at lyft. We appreciate yall being here today and when we begin the round of questions, well start with mr. Ableson and you will be recognized for five minutes and we appreciate you being with us today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good morning. My name is mike ableson, im the Vice President of global strategy for General Motors. I want to thank the members and subcommittee members for invi inviting me to tell you more about General Motors vision for transportation coming in mobility and opportunity selfdriving vehicles hold for the future safety of the American Public. If i could, though, id first like to relate a personal story that has struck close to the heart of myself and General Motors colleagues. This past september, one of our colleagues, steve kiefer, suffered an incredible tragedy. His son was returning to college after spendsing a weekend at home when he was struck and killed by a distracted driver. Watching steve and his family go through this terrible avoidable loss has just increased the determination of all those that know steve to make this Technology Available as soon as its ready so we can avoid these loss es in the future. Unfortunately, steve its not alone. 10 of vehicle fatalities and 18 of injuries and crashes are due to distracted driving. More than 30 of fatalities involve a drunk driver. 28 of fatalities are speed related. Vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause for death in adults and children. Selfdriving cars wont drive while impaired by drugs and alcohol. They wont be distracted by a cell phone. They wont drive drowsy or recklessly and their speed will always be appropriate to the conditions at hand. For years automakers committed our resources to resources when crashes happen. We have the opportunity to avoid crashes all together. Not only are we committed to building safe and reliable selfdriving vehicles, we also believe selfdriving vehicles will provide tremendous benefits to society in terms of convenience and quality of life. Such vehicles will provide unprecedented access to transportatio