Today, Donald Trump officially takes the oath of office and becomes the 45th President of the United States. Along with Trump taking over for outgoing President, Barack Obama, a new administration takes office. And that includes a new Secretary of Transportation, which is Elaine Chao. She’ll be in charge of the future of self-driving cars. A topic that really became popular in the Obama administration with Anthony Foxx as Secretary of Transportation who put together some regulations for self-driving cars, but that is obviously something that is going to change as technology changes, and that will fall to Elaine Chao. This leaves many people wondering what exactly a Trump administration would do to self-driving cars. No one really knows where Trump, or Chao stands when it comes to autonomy.
The incoming administration has shown that they are looking to reduce regulation, and that could also be the case when it comes to self-driving cars. But unfortunately, there needs to be regulation, otherwise there could be some serious accidents taking place on America’s highways and roads in the coming years. Companies like Uber, Lyft, General Motors, Chrysler, Waymo and many more, are all working self-driving cars, and they want to have them on the roads with drivers by 2021. For that to happen, they’ll need help from Chao and her team, to change regulation as the technology gets ready for public roads.
While it is unclear where Chao and Trump stand when it comes to self-driving cars, one thing is for certain, it’s going to be a big part of Chao’s tenure under Trump for the next four years. With the technology getting better and better, and closer to being ready for primetime. States like Michigan, California and Arizona are already allowing self-driving cars on public roads, and that’s only going to become more popular during Trump’s time in office. Hopefully they’ll embrace the innovation that is self-driving cars instead of stifling the innovation that’s coming out of these companies working on self-driving cars. Of course, we won’t know for sure for a few more months. As self-driving car regulations are definitely not the highest thing on Trump, or Chao’s list right now. As Chao wants to get to work in fixing America’s roads.