Trump infrastructure plan to include shift toward driverless vehicles

The move toward driverless vehicles and other emerging technologies will be included in President Donald Trump’s delayed infrastructure plan, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Wednesday during CES.

The proposed bill, set for release around Trump’s first State of the Union address on Jan. 30, will include a chapter addressing “transformative technology,” Chao said. “We have to think about how to pay for it.”

“We will be talking about how we introduce and embed transformative technology in the future infrastructure system for this country,” Chao told a few hundred people gathered for her speech at the Westgate.

Chao said the Trump administration would rather offer incentives than public dollars to private companies developing the next wave of transportation technology.

Just before Chao’s speech, the Transportation Department’s website on Wednesday started soliciting public comment on how to remove regulatory barriers and integrate automated vehicles into the national highway system.

“We want to reduce the regulatory barriers and the regulatory hurdles to innovation in this sector,” Chao said.

Gov. Brian Sandoval declared two years ago that Nevada would be a leader in promoting the electric and driverless car industry by refining laws to allow for autonomous vehicle testing.

Locally, transit officials have partnered with AAA to test a driverless egg-shaped shuttle over the next year, carrying up to 11 passengers along a half-mile loop in the Fremont East neighborhood that was designated last year as part of the city’s “innovation district.”

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.