The Self-Driving Car Fight in Congress Isn't Really About Safety at All
The debate in Congress over self-driving car regulations is less about safety and more about competing commercial interests masked as public concern. Two opposing bills—the SELF DRIVE Act and the Stay in Your Lane Act—reflect a classic 'bootleggers and Baptists' dynamic, where moral arguments cloak economic agendas. Despite claims of prioritizing safety, neither side fully engages with empirical safety data to support their positions.
- ▪The SELF DRIVE Act would allow up to 90,000 self-driving cars on roads and requires manufacturers to self-certify safety.
- ▪The Stay in Your Lane Act requires defining operational limits for autonomous vehicles and prohibits operation beyond them.
- ▪A 'bootleggers and Baptists' coalition describes how moral advocates and commercial interests align to advance regulatory goals.
- ▪Current U.S. regulation is a patchwork of 34 conflicting state laws, complicating national deployment of self-driving technology.
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Driverless Cars The Self-Driving Car Fight in Congress Isn't Really About Safety at All Bootleggers, Baptists, and the fight over who gets to write America's self-driving car rules. Andrew Miller | 5.1.2026 12:00 PM Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google Media Contact & Reprint Requests <img src="https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/c800x450-w800-q80/uploads/2026/04/waymo-tesla-v1-800x450.jpg" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto" width="1200" height="675" title="Against an electric blue background, a white Waymo vehicle faces the right, and a white Tesla vehicle faces the left." alt="Against an electric blue background, a white Waymo vehicle faces the right, and a white Tesla vehicle faces the left.
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