Ongoing efforts in developing Autonomous Vehicles and answered questions on safety, Cyber Security and their hopes for updated rules and regulation from the national highway traffic administration. This is two hours. 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 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 from mississippi. Glad to have you on board. Also looking forward to working and advancing an agenda that creates jobs and puts consumers first and i want to recognize the lady in 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. I look forward to working with the members of the subcommittee to continue to explore areas in the economy to provide opportunities for growth and job creation. I 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 impressed with the creativity of the Auto Industry to build the vehicles that we could only dream about a short time ago. The Technological Advancements are amazing. Today the subcommittee will continue to focus on selfdriving vehicles and their potential to transform our Transportation System. Well hear about what testing is happening and what testing needs to happen and what the time frame is for that deployment. In 2015 there were over 35,000 lives 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 higher. We know that human error accounts for over 90 of all traffic accidents. The emergence 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, testing these vehicles will be critical for refining their missions. Today vehicles undergo tests before theyre sold to consumers. Vehicle engineers and professional test drivers go through inspections of vehicles to ensure compliance with crashnecrash worthiness. Cars are put through hundreds of thousands of miles of testing to ensure once a vehicle is on a dealers lot its safe. Unlike conventional vehicles fully self driving vehicles are intended to operate without the input of human drivers. They no longer depend on a driver. Testing will be essential to certifying the safety in empowering self driving vehicles. As we discuss the testing of self driving vehicles to date and steps to commercial deployments, i look forward to earn willi learning from the witnesses about plans for future deployment and i look forward to hearing about the existing testing environment can be improved to facilitate the developments of potentially Life Saving 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 self driving vehicles across thousands of acres. We need to understand how to ensure that more states take positive steps to move testing forward and to ensure that testing doesnt become a roadblock to innovation. Testing is essential to the successful and safe deployment of self driving 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 which is essential. I thank the witnesses for taking the time to be with us today and i look forward to a thoughtful discussion. At this time i have about a minute left. Is there anyone 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 efforts to examine and better understand the world of self driving cars. As many of you have noted today, the innovation in self driving cars has the potential to provide improvements to our Transportation System and enhancements that could save thousands of lives every year. Of interest to me is the new benefits that self driving cars would provide to americans with disabilities, including those with intellectual disabilities who are unable to obtain drivers licenses and must rely on friends and 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. Self driving 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 recognizes the Ranking Member of the subcommittee for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you so much. This is the first hearing of the newly remade digital Consumer Protection and subcommittee. Im glad to see it named Consumer Protection and its back 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 safety, which comes as the number of traffic deaths nationwide is increasing and Consumer Product safety, and safety issues before products are sold. The emergence of new Technology Poses new challenges for Cyber Security. This impacts americas every day lives. We need to be watch dogs ensuring the benefit of american consumers. We can Work Together to advance 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 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 self driving cars where we left off in november. Self driving cars have the potential to greatly reduce the number of accidents caused by human error. However, we need oversight to ensure human error is not replaced by vehicle error. I share the optimism about the long term promise about Autonomous Vehicles. While testing is necessary before we can confidently put consumers in self driving 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. The viability of self driving cars depend on manufacturers and government working to share data and promote safety. As we think about testing, we need to figure out the specifics of how many wavers are necessary for test vehicles in the coming years and how specific those wavers 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 potential to change 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 progra promises safety benefits for families. This places new demands on our roads and highways and the infrastructure that powers wireless communications. We need a framework that ensures were building the connected future of the 21st century. As we consider this new landscape, there is an Important Role for state and federal regulators 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. Right now i dont believe the chairman of the full committee is here so well informally 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 this subcommittee will watch out for the little guy and im pleased that the words Consumer Protection appear again in the name. Todays hearing is an example of our Consumer Protection oversight obligation. I read something that i think can sum up where we are. I quote, a decade ago self driving 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 self driving cars hearing in november, we need these vehicles to be safe not just when all cars on the road are autonomous, but also the decades when they share the road with human drivers. I look forward to how innovators are using tools to demonstrate these vehicles are safe and they meet the challenges of interacting with other objects on the roads such as bicyclists and wet pavement. A ton autonomous driving has been created by men and women, many who are immigrants who bring skills to our workforce. Any efforts to put up roadblocks to immigration will also put up roadblocks to be ahead in the curve. We need to find ways to tap these technologies to help workers find new opportunities through education and training. 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. Its technology. Were trying to stay at the forefront of innovation 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. In reality theyre here and helping transform mobility and the transportation of people and goods. Transportation is no longer the accurate word. Mobility is. In 2015, 32950 people died on the road in this country. This would be a Public Health epidemic if it were any other industry. Since 94 of accidents are attributable to human error and its an issue of international competitivene competitiveness. Automated vehicles will be developed globally whether we like it or not. I think its critical that america be at the forefront to develop these life saving advances or well lose our critical edge in this space. My home state of michigan is leading the way in this area. There will be focus on testing and certification of Automated Vehicles and was designated as an automated proving ground by d. O. T. Michigan, in a bipartisan way, my colleagues 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. As i mentioned when the chairman of the full committee arrives, hell be afforded the opportunity to give his opening statement. That concludes with the members opening states. The chair would like to remind members pursuant to Committee Rules all 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 General Motors, mr. Anders, dr. Kara, senior information scientist and codirector at the center for Decision Making under uncertainty. Mr. Gill pratt, ceo at Toyota Research institute and mr. Joseph opaku, who is the Vice President of Public Policy at lyft. We appreciate you being here today. When we begin the round of questions well start with mr. Ableson and youll have five minutes. We appreciate you again being with us today. Thank you. Good morning. 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 coming transformation and the opportunity that self driving vehicles hold for the American Public. I would like to relate a personal story that has struck very close to the heart of myself and my General Motors colleagues. This last september, one of our colleagues, steve kiefer, suffered an incredible tragedy. His son was returning to college after spending 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 those who know steve to make this Technology Available as soon as its ready so we can avoid these losses in the future, but unfortunately steve is not alone. 10 of vehicle fatalities 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 of death for children and adults ages 4 to 34. With 94 of fatal crashes caused by human behavior, theres tremendous potential to do much better. Self driving cars wont drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol. They wont be distracted by a cell phone. They wont drive drowsy or recklessly and their speeds will be appropriate to the conditions at hand. For years auto makers have committed our resources to protecting passengers when crashes do happen. Today, through the continuing development of this technology, we have the opportunity to avoid crashes all together. Not only are we committed to building safe and reliable self driving vehicles, we also believe that self driving vehicles will provide tremendous benefits to society in terms of convenience and quality of life. Such vehicles will provide unprecedented access to transportation to those who need it most like people with disabilities, those in underserved neighborhoods with limited access to Public Transportation and the elderly. General motors is incredibly opt mostic about the future of mobility. Auto makers are faced with a tremendous opportunity to create a new model for personal transportation that changes the way society thinks about the automobile and we are rising to the challenge. In june of last year gm began testing self driving cars on public roads in arizona, the urban center of San Francisco and in december we announced we would begin testing in