Auto executives testified about their work on selfdriving cars, testing the cars themselves and safety of government regulation. [ indistinct chatter ] good morning. Id like to call the subcommittee on Digital Commerce 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. Its a pleasure to be here with you all today. Before we get started, i want to thank the chairman for the work they did in the last congress here on the subcommittee. I want to recognize the new vice chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from mississippi. Glad to have you on board. Also looking forward to working to advance an agenda that creates jobs and puts consumers first and i want to recognize the gentle lady from illinois, our Ranking Member. I appreciate well be working with her this congress. I look forward to working in a bipartisan fashion to grow the economy and protect consumers. Finally, as chairman, i look forward to working with the members of the subcommittee to continue to explore areas in the emerging Digital Economy to provide opportunities for growth and job creation in america. I recently had an opportunity to visit the auto show here in washington, d. C. The showroom floors were filled with vehicles equipped with innovative features and newly designed systems that promised to enhance the safety, mobility and convenience of our drivers experiences. I was also greatly impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of the Auto Industry to build the vehicles that we could only dream about a short time ago. The Technological Advancements in the sector are nothing short of amazing. Today the subcommittee will continue to focus on selfdriving vehicles and their potential to completely transform our Transportation System. Well hear about what testing is happening, what testing needs to happen and what the timeframe is for that deployment. In 2015 there were 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 going to be even higher. Unfortunately, we also know that human error accounts for over 90 of all the traffic accidents. These are starting ta tisks. However, the emerges of Automated Vehicle technology and growing investments into fully selfdriving vehicles promises to reduce lives lost on the roads by decreasing traffic accidents making roadways safer for all users. As we work to make self driving vehicles a reality, adequately testing these vehicles will be critical for refining their mission. Today conventional vehicles undergo tests on public roads before theyre sold to consumers. In each of these settings, vehicle engineers and professional test drivers go through detailed assessments and inspections of vehicles to ensure compliance of crash worthiness and crash avoidance standards and to verify a vehicles overall structural integrity. Cars are put through hundreds of thousands of miles of testing to ensure once a vehicle is on a dealers lot it is safe for consumers and their families. Unlike conventional vehicles fully self driving 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 action based on unplanned roadway activity. Testing will be essential to certifying the safety and reliability of the Technology Empowering selfdriving vehicles. As we discuss the testing of selfdriving vehicles today and steps to commercial deployment, i look forward to learning from the withins about how lawmakers and other entities are testing these and plans for future deployment. I also look forward to hearing about how the existing testing environment can be improved to facilitate the developments of potentially lifesaving technology in this country. Ohio Transportation Research announced an investment into a Smart Mobility advanced research and test center in east liberty, ohio to allow for the testing of selfdriving vehicles across thousands of acres of road courses. We need to understand how to ensure more states take positive steps to move testing forward and to ensure that testing doesnt become a roadblock to innovation. Roadblock vehicle testing is essential to the successful and safe deployment as selfdriving vehicles. Testing will not only provide auto makers and other entities with the data they need to make these vehicles as safe as possible, but it will help build Consumer Confidence in this technology, which is central to realizing the future benefits of selfdriving vehicles. I thank the witnesses for taking the time to be with us today and i look forward to a thoughtful and engaging discussion. And 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 vice chairman. Thank you for calling this hearing today to build on the subcommittees previous efforts to examine and better understand the world of selfdriving cars. As many of you have noted today, the developments in innovation of selfdriving cars has the potential to provide countless improvements to our Transportation System and invaluable safety enhancements that could save thousands of lives every year. Of particular interest to me is the potential benefits and new opportunities that selfdriving cars would provide to americans with disabilities, including those with intellectual disabilities who are unable to obtain drivers licenses and must rely on friends, relatives and sometimes uncertain modes of Public Transportation in order to get about their daily lives, including running errands or just getting to a job. In the disability world, lack of transportation is widely viewed as the top impediment to success and advancement in society. Selfdriving cars could offer the Disability Community a really tremendous opportunity. Were looking forward to hearing more about this. With that i yield back. The gentleman yields back and the chair now recognizes the gentle lady from illinois, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, for five minute force an opening statement. Thank you so much. This is the first hearing of the newly renamed digital Consumer Protection and subcommittee. This has always been Consumer Protection subcommittee. But im glad to see the name Consumer Protection is back in our official name, where it belongs. The subcommittee has important work to do on behalf of american consumers. We are kicking off the congress with a hearing on auto safety, which comes as the number of traffic deaths nationwide is increasing and Consumer Product safety. We need recall effectiveness to prevent safety issues before products are sold. Meanwhile, the emergence of new Technology Poses new challenges for Cyber Security and personal privacy. It impacts americans every day lives. We need to be watch dogs ensuring the benefit of american consumers. I know well be able to Work Together to provide consumer interests over the course of the congress. I also want to take a brief moment to thank the democratic members of our subcommittee. I want to welcome back to the subcommittee doris duly and jane green and, of course, our members from the last congress, joe kennedy. I am 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 need adequate testing and oversight to ensure that human error is not replaced with vehicle error. I share auto manufacturers optimism about the longterm promise of Autonomous Vehicles and today i want to focus on how we would 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 air bags to the vw emissions scandal. The longterm viability of selfdriving cars depend on manufacturers and government working cooperatively to share data and promote safety. As we think about testing, we need to figure out the specifics of how many waivers are necessary for test vehicles in the coming years and how specific those waivers should be. We need to decide what safety tests or standards are necessary. And we need to determine how states and the federal government can best Work Together to ensure 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 know yield the remaining time to congresswoman matsuey. Thank you very much for yielding me time. Autonomous vehicles have incredible potential to change so much more than just cars. This Technology Gives us a way to think about mobility. It has the potential to expand access to seniors, americans with disabilities and so many more who may not be able to drive today. This Technology Allows us to rethink urban landscapes and public spaces we may no longer need for Parking Spaces and perhaps most importantly it promises safety benefits for families. This places new demands on our roads and highways and the spectrum of infrastructure that powers wireless communications. We need a framework that ensures were building the connected future of the 21st century. Driverless cars will have an impact to our economies, communities and global competitiveness. As we consider this new landscape, there is an Important Role for state and federal regulators, Technology Companies and traditional manufacturers, and congress to play in deploying this future. I look forward to working with all of you in this exciting area and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you very much. The gentle lady yields back. Right now i dont believe the chairman of the full committee is here. So well formally pass on the chairmans testimony at this time. The chair would recognize for five minutes the gentleman from new jersey, the Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I wanted to start by congratulating you on your new chairmanship of this newly named subcommittee and im hopeful that the subcommittee will use this mandate to watch out for the little guy. And im very pleased that the words Consumer Protection once again appear in the subcommittees name. Todays hearing on selfdriving cars is an example of our Consumer Protection oversight obligation. I recently read something in code that i think can sum up where we are. I quote, a decade ago selfdriving cars were a matter of debate. Today theyre inevitable. 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 into the weeds a bit and i look forward to hearing about where we are today in the testing, what needs to be done to establish these cars are reliable and safe. As i said in our selfdriving cars hearing in november, we need these vehicles to be safe not just when all cars on the road are autonomous, but also during the decades of transition time when they share the road with human drivers. I look forward to hearing how innovators are using testing, modeling, analytics and other tools to demonstrate that these vehicles are safe, that they meet the challenges of interacting with other common obstacles on our roads, such as bicyclists, pedestrians and wet, snowcovered pavement. Privacy protections are in place to defend against hackers. Autonomous driving has been create bid hardworking men and women, many of whom are immigrants, who bring skills to our workforce. Any efforts to put up roadblocks to immigration will also put up roadblocks in oufr efforts to be ahead in the technology curve. At the same time 70 of American Workers vulnerable to computerization, we need to find ways to tap technologies to help these workers find new opportunities through education and training. Thank you again. I yield the remainder of my time to representative dingle. Who . Shes not here. Oh, how could i miss you with that beautiful dress . Okay. Im just going to talk loud. No one has ever said i didnt have a big mouth. Thank you for yielding. Theres never been a more exciting time to be in the Auto Industry. Mr. Chairman, its an honor to be a member of this committee too. The midwest is here. Thank you. Its technology. Digital commerce. Were trying to stay at the forefront of innovation and technology. Theres never been a more exciting time to be in the Auto Industry. Automated vehicles are not just something you read about in Science Fiction novel. In reality, theyre already here and helping transform mobility and the transportation of people and goods. Transportation is no longer the accurate word. Mobility is. In 2015, 23,950 people died on the road in this country. This would be a Public Health epidemic if it were in any other industry. Automated vehicles will help us save lives, as many of my previous other colleagues have noted. Since 94 of accidents are attributable to human error. Its also an issue of international competitiveness. Automated vehicles will be developed globally whether we like it or not. I think its critical that america be at the forefront of innovation and technology by taking the lead in developing these potentially lifesaving advances, or well lose our Competitive Edge in this critical space. My home state of michigan is leading the way in this area. I am proud that the American Center for mobility is in the 12th district and will focus on testing, verification and Self Certification of Automated Vehicles and was just designated as an Automated Vehicle proving ground by d. O. T. Michigan, in a bipartisan way, my colleagues and others are dedicating considerable resources to Automated Vehicles. And im committed to helping it and the United States remain leaders in this vital area. That being said, safety, including Cyber Security, has to be our top priority here. Nobody wants to let unsafe technologies on the road, but we also dont want to prevent vehicles that improve safety from reaching consumers either. Im looking forward to working with the committee and stakeholders to strike the right balance between supporting innovation and making sure that consumers are safe. I yield back the balance of my time. The gentle lady yields back. And, as i mentioned when the chairman of the full committee arrives, he will be afforded the opportunity to give his opening statement. That now concludes we now conclude with the members Opening Statements. The chair would like to remind members pursuant to committee rules, all 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 subcommittee. Todays witnesses will have the opportunity to give Opening Statements followed by a round of questions from the members. Our witness panels for todays hearings will include mike ableson who is the Vice President of global strategy of General Motors, mr. Anders karlberg at volvo car group. Dr. Kara, senior information scientists and codirector at the center for Decision Making under uncertainty. Mr. Gil pratt, ceo at Toyota Research institute and mr. Joseph opaku, Vice President of Public Policy at last yft. We appreciate you being here today. When we begin the round of questions well start with mr. Ableson and youll be recognize ed for five minutes. We appreciate you again being with us today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good morning. My name is mike ableson. Im the Vice President of Global Mobility strategy for General Motors. I want to thank the chairman and Ranking Members, subcommittee members for inviting me to tell you more about General Motors vision for the