Rogers / 3 Senator Trees

S.S._____

A BILL
To fund research for advances in autonomous technology in cars.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Autopilot Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Approximately 6,800,000 crashes occur in the United States each year; a substantial number are
estimated to be caused by aggressive driving.
2) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 2.5% of fatal crashes and 2% of injury
crashes involve drowsy driving.
3) American Automobile Association show that almost 13,000 people have been injured or killed since
1990 in crashes caused by aggressive driving.
4) Alcohol is involved in about 40% of all fatal car crashes.
5) In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes
6) Every day, between 30 and 40 people in the United States die in car accidents due to drunk driving.
7) Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three of those is alcohol related.
8) Alcohol-related crashes in the U.S. cost about $51 billion each year.
9) An average drunk driver has driven drunk 87 times before first arrest.
10) Nearly a third of respondents (30%) were willing to pay 30 percent more for an autonomous vehicle
11) Only 14 percent of people felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10 miles per hour over the speed
limit.
12) Alcohol is involved in about 40% of all fatal car crashes.
13) Up to 5,000 or 6,000 fatal crashes each year may be caused by drowsy drivers.
14) On October 14, 2015, Tesla released a software update providing Model S cars made in and after
October 2014 with Autopilot, which allows the vehicle to steer within a lane, change lanes with the simple
tap of a turn signal, and manage speed by using active, traffic-aware cruise control.
15) [Autopilot] is currently limited to primarily highway and freeway travel, and the system knows when
the driver needs to take over or is not paying attention.
16) About two thirds of Americans were moderately concerned or very concerned about driving or riding in
a vehicle with self-driving technology.
17) Several states, including Nevada, California and Florida have enacted legislation that expressly permits
operation of self-driving vehicles under certain conditions.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) $500 million will be set aside from the US Department of Transportation to be given as grants to
automotive companies researching advances in technology for self driving cars.
B) This bill shall be upheld by the US Department of Transportation. Any company researching
autonomous technology in cars may request a grant towards funding further research in autonomous
technology.
C) Any company found using grant given money for purposes other than research in autonomous
technology in cars shall be fined $7.5 million along with having to refund the amount given to said
company through said grant. This bill shall go into effect January 1, 2017. This bill shall expire on January
1, 2025.

October 14th, 2015, Tesla had made a big step in being one of the first automobile companies to release an
Autopilot feature in their cars. Through Teslas software update 7.0 for the Model S, autopilot can now steer within a
lane, change lanes, and manage its speed according to its surroundings. This update from Tesla has shown that self
driving cars are a real possibility and may be coming in the near future. Other main companies researching self driving
cars include Google, Toyota, and Mercedes. Google has been testing its fully self driving cars since 2012 but are still a
long way away from being in the public's hands. Most car companies expect fully autonomous cars to be available and
approved for public use by 2025. The cost to research the self driving car technology is very expensive though. Toyota
recently spent $50 million to speed up their self driving car program. Self driving cars are the way of the future and
would decrease accidents caused by driving under the influence, drowsy driving, and aggressive driving, therefore the
government should set aside money to be given as grants to accelerate self driving car technology.
Driving under the influence is the third highest reason for car accidents. Driving under the influence is classified
on the federal level as driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or more. Self driving cars would take away the need
for one to drive after just having alcohol. Uber, a carpool/taxi like service, expects to have a driverless fleet of cars by
2030. Having a fleet of driverless cars would decrease the price of a taxi service and provide people who would be
tempted to drive under the influence with a cheap and safe mode of transportation. The 1996 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse found that 28% of respondents had driven under the influence of alcohol or drugs in the year
before the survey was taken. With the use of fully self driving cars, those people who would normally be driving under
the influence would no longer be putting themselves and others in danger by drinking and driving. It was also found that
Alcohol is involved in about 40% of all fatal car crashes. If those people had been in a self driving car, thousands of
lives would have been saved. Many of those who die from drunk driving are pedestrians or other drivers who were hit by
a driver under the influence. There is no doubt that having self driving cars would greatly decrease the amount of deaths
due to driving under the influence and many other reasons, the sooner there are self driving cars, the more lives will be
saved.
Although further down on the list of reasons for car accidents, drowsy driving is another cause of thousands of
people losing their life every year. With Teslas new autopilot feature, many users are putting a lot of trust in the car and
do not realize that it is not a fully self driving car yet. The driver is legally still responsible for the actions of the car and
can override the Autopilot at any point. As of right now, drivers are still required to have their hands on the wheel at all
times incase something goes wrong with autopilot, but as this technology advances, there will be less stress on the driver
causing him to not get worn out driving and get tired. The CDC, Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that
among adults aged at least 18 years or older in 19 states and the District of Columbia, 4.2% reported that they had fallen
asleep while driving at least once in the previous 30 days. Once self driving cars are available to the public, one would
be able to go about his business and not get tired out from watching the road and only have to focus on the drive when
one is notified by the car to pay attention through an area. As of Teslas autopilot feature right now, it can tell if the driver
is paying attention or not and notify the driver if it is necessary to pay attention at points in the drive. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 2.5% of fatal crashes and 2% of injury crashes involve drowsy
driving. Drowsy driving is most common in commercial drivers and those who work a late night shift. Mercedes
already has a self driving commercial truck that they are testing to be able to decrease the risk of drowsy driving and
lower the amount of crashes due to drowsy driving. Self driving cars will save the lives of the tired, they will also follow
the rules of the road.
Four out of the top seven causes of car accidents all fall under the same category, Aggressive or Reckless
Driving. These include speeding, reckless driving, running red lights, and running stop signs. The great thing about self
driving cars is that they follow every rule of the road. Only 14 percent felt it was "extremely dangerous" to drive 10
miles per hour over the speed limit. Drivers have started to feel comfortable with breaking the law. With self driving
cars, they would not go over the speed limit, run a red light or stop sign, or break any law as long as it was in self driving
mode. This would lead to a great decrease in accidents caused by aggressive driving. Also due to reckless driving, drivers
sometimes dont notice other cars or are not fast enough to react. V2V allows cars to talk to one anotherexchanging
basic safety-relevant data, such as speed, direction, and relative position10 times per second. When cars share this
information at such a fast rate, they can "see" all of the vehicles around them, sense the possibility of a crash, and warn
drivers to avoid the crash. Having the mass majority of cars being self driving also would allow the cars to
communicate with one another and react to the possibility of a crash in a fraction of the time it might take a reckless
driver to. Advances in self driving cars will take away the risk of an accident caused by an aggressive or reckless driver
and be able to predict an accident before it even happens.