Overview
- Waymo and Tesla urged Congress to establish a uniform federal framework and bolster NHTSA, warning that China could set global autonomous-vehicle standards without U.S. action.
- Lawmakers from both parties signaled openness to national standards and pressed for transparency on remote assistance locations, standardized safety data, and the use of binding arbitration.
- Waymo faced questions over Austin school‑bus violations and a Santa Monica incident in which a child was struck, while it cited more than 100 million miles with lower injury rates and described recent software fixes.
- Senators probed core design choices, challenging Tesla’s camera‑only approach on redundancy and seeking clearer operational design domains compared with Waymo’s multi‑sensor strategy.
- Both companies said they would accept liability for crashes caused by their technology, as proposals such as the AV Safety Data Act and Stay in Your Lane Act gained attention and federal probes into Waymo and scrutiny of Tesla continued; Waymo also disclosed a $16 billion funding round.