By Tim Higgins
When Illinois state Rep. Michael Zalewski crafted state
legislation that would allow car makers to operate self-driving
taxi services, he leaned heavily on General Motors Co.
His bill, introduced Feb. 8, would limit access to the business
to companies that make their own vehicles. That means GM would be
eligible, but not tech companies like Uber Technologies Inc. that
are developing their own self-driving cars and don't make their own
vehicles.
"General Motors approached me about it and suggested that they
had success last year in Michigan [with a similar bill], and they
consider Chicago a big market for them," Mr. Zalewski, a Democrat,
said in an interview. "We went from there."
GM's involvement in the legislation underlines a simmering
tension between Motor City car makers that have long done it their
way, and Silicon Valley tech companies that aim to rewrite the
rules of the road.
After falling behind in self-driving cars, GM has unleashed its
powerful lobbying team to cultivate relationships with statehouses.
The largest U.S. vehicle maker by sales has a long history of
backing legislation to preserve its interests, including a bill in
Indiana last year that would stop electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc.
from operating its own stores there.
GM denied it is trying to keep tech companies out of the market
for autonomous vehicles, noting that ultimately the lawmakers make
the decision on what's filed and that the company has worked with
policy makers who have different views on the degree of legislation
they want to support. On Thursday, the auto maker said it has been
having discussions with Uber and Waymo, a unit of Google owner
Alphabet Inc., on language that everyone can support.
"Our business is to introduce new technology into vehicles
safely and that's what we do," said Harry Lightsey, GM's executive
director of emerging technologies policy. "We don't have a problem
with tech companies being in this business if they can show they
are responsible and can be accountable for the performance of their
product."
Last year, legislators introduced bills in 20 states that
involve self-driving cars, according to the National Conference of
State Legislatures. This year, lawmakers in several states are
looking at legislation modeled after legislation in Michigan that
GM endorsed and that originally excluded tech companies from
participating in so-called mobility on-demand services, or
autonomous taxis.
Waymo, which has logged more than 2.5 million miles of testing
its self-driving cars on U.S. roadways, is fighting back.
Michigan's SAVE Act, enacted in December, was ultimately amended to
include Waymo after outcries from the tech giant.
"Just as Americans should have a choice in what car they buy,
they should also have a choice to ride in safer, more advanced
self-driving cars," a Waymo spokesman said in a statement. "This
kind of anticompetitive bill will only slow down the rollout of
live-saving technology and create an unlevel playing field at the
expense of consumer safety."
GM's Mr. Lightsey said he is aware of at least 10 states where
the SAVE Act language, which GM views as a model, is circulating
among lawmakers, including in bills filed in Maryland, Georgia and
Tennessee.
Tennessee state Rep. William Lamberth said he consulted with GM
and others when drafting legislation similar to the SAVE Act. The
Republican said he is cautious about letting tech companies have
access to public roads for testing.
"I know that if a manufacturer of a vehicle puts a car on the
roadway it's going to have gone through a thousand different tests
before it ever gets out on the road," Mr. Lamberth said. He added
there is nothing preventing a tech company from partnering with an
auto maker.
In Illinois, where Mr. Zalewski in the past proposed statewide
regulations against Uber, the lawmaker said he was prepared to
"engage" in a dialogue with the ride-hailing service and other tech
companies. "There are always opportunities for amendments," Mr.
Zalewski said.
Mr. Zalewski's bill includes a carve-out for Waymo similar to
the one in the Michigan legislation, allowing for a company that
has tested more than one million miles on public roads to be
considered a car manufacturer. The Tennessee legislation doesn't
have such a provision.
"We think it is early in the life of this technology" for states
to enact legislation on self-driving cars, an Uber spokeswoman said
in a statement.
TechNet, a lobbying group founded years ago by Silicon Valley
fixtures John Doerr and John Chambers to advocate for tech-industry
issues, is tracking 60 autonomous-car-related bills that are
circulating and expects 10 to 20 more this year.
In Massachusetts, lawmakers proposed legislation to tax
self-driving cars, dubbed by one lawmaker as zombie cars, out of
fear of fleets of cars circling Boston without passengers. In
California, after Uber last year operated self-driving cars in San
Francisco without a state permit, a bill has been filed to make
such a violation punishable with a fine of up to $25,000 a day.
Eric Paul Dennis, an analyst at the Center for Automotive
Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., cautioned states from quickly
adopting legislation.
"The earliest timeline to when we might see some kind of product
to which these laws would apply is at least 2021," he said. "By
that time, our knowledge of the topic may have changed so much that
anything passed now will be obsolete."
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 24, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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