Autonomous Vehicle Consultant

How will Donald Trump’s election victory impact R&D conducted by the U.S. Government regarding driverless vehicles? There may be reason for a bit of optimism.

During his post-election speech on November 9^th, President-elect Donald Trump stated, “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”

In a previous post, I wrote, “Failure to invest in roadway infrastructure in the United States may delay the ultimate commercialization of driverless vehicles. “An estimated 65 percent of U.S. roads are in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, with the transportation infrastructure system rated 12th in the World Economic Forum’s 2014-2015 global competitiveness report.”

“The Huffington Post noted, ‘Shoddy infrastructure has become a roadblock to the development of self-driving cars, vexing engineers and adding time and cost. Poor markings and uneven signage on the 3 million miles of paved roads in the United States are forcing automakers to develop more sophisticated sensors and maps to compensate, industry executives say.’ More advanced sensors will add more cost to driverless vehicles.”

As for federal support of driverless vehicles, “The government’s new support includes a request in President Obama’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year for $4 billion, to be spent over 10 years, to finance research projects and infrastructure improvements tied to driverless cars.” It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump puts this level of spending on a ‘fast track’ to accelerate driverless vehicle development.