Hope and patience waning on self-driving bill Presented by Freight Rail Works

With help from Brianna Gurciullo, Stephanie Beasley and Tanya Snyder

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LOSING PATIENCE WITH CONGRESS ON AV BILL: Hope is diminishing in the private sector that the Senate will be able to advance legislation on self-driving cars by the end of the year. “As we see the clock ticking down before our very eyes, the hope is waning a little bit, which is very disappointing,” said Hilary Cain, Toyota’s director of technology and innovation policy, at a Bloomberg conference Thursday. The bill in question, S. 1885 (115), has been the subject of a drawn-out legislative process. Beyond the political challenges that will arise if lawmakers have to start over next year with a split Congress, testing the industry’s patience risks losing its cooperation altogether. “The sense I’m getting from the developer community is we’re not interested in doing this again next Congress. It’s been a frustrating couple of years to try to get his over the finish line, a lot of wheels spinning,” Cain said. The alternative could be to focus on DOT's efforts to come up with a framework for regulating autonomous vehicles.

Safety metrics not there yet: DOT is keeping tabs on Waymo's imminent rollout of a commercial self-driving car service in Arizona, and an official warned Thursday that as the technology inches ever closer to viability, there’s still no consensus on how to measure safety. Speaking at the same Bloomberg event, Derek Kan, undersecretary of transportation for policy, wouldn’t comment directly on Waymo. But he said that, in general, “I think where we are at this point in history, is defining how do we measure safety and what are the leading indicators of safety?” Kan also said he hopes that as car companies come closer to deployment, they collaborate more on developing safety metrics, citing confidential meetings that the aviation industry holds to share data.

MADD campaign: Speaking of Waymo, 600 of its cars being tested in Arizona will carry red ribbons from Mothers Against Drunk Driving through the holiday season. The ribbons are part of the group’s Tie One On For Safety public awareness campaign. “This year we have learned that drunk driving deaths have increased 35 percent over the past five years between 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve and midnight New Year’s Eve,” MADD spokesperson Becky Iannotta said.

FINALLY FRIDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on all things trains, planes, automobiles and ports. Get in touch with feedback, tips or song lyric suggestions at [email protected] or @samjmintz.

“So we took to the Calico road / Running from the weather / There was a highway inside of her eyes / There was a buried treasure.”

LISTEN HERE: Follow MT’s playlist on Spotify. What better way to start your day than with songs (picked by us and readers) about roads, rails, rivers and runways?

CHECK IT OUT: Our Tanya Snyder will be interviewing incoming House Transportation Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) on C-SPAN’s " Newsmakers" — watch it tonight at 10 p.m. or on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

NELSON WATCH: The Florida saga continues — and it doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon, as a manual recount was ordered in the Senate race between Commerce ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

LOOKING ELSEWHERE: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told our Brianna Gurciullo that it appears the White House is “looking in another direction” than President Donald Trump’s personal pilot John Dunkin when it comes to the nomination for FAA administrator. The Commerce chairman said that former Delta executive Steve Dickson, who The Wall Street Journal reported has surfaced as a consensus choice, is “a very able person,” but he’s awaiting a decision from the White House.

A message from Freight Rail Works: With a nationwide network, freight railroads are committed to ensuring the safety of the communities we serve. See how collaboration, training, technology and operational enhancements create a smarter, safer freight rail network for towns across America.

PRESSURE GROWING ON BOEING: The Air Line Pilots Association wants “immediate help” from FAA and NTSB in “clarifying the issues” with a system on Boeing 737 Max airplanes that have come to light after the Lion Air crash last month. “Early news reports about the Oct. 29 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 have pointed to a stall-prevention system that in some circumstances could send a plane into a dangerously steep plunge — a feature that pilots have said they didn't know about,” your MT host writes for Pros. ALPA President Tim Canoll wrote in a letter that “there appears to be a significant information gap, and we want to ensure that pilots operating these aircraft have all of the information they need to do so safely.”

More: American Airlines said it was “unaware of some of the functionality” of the system, per Reuters. And one victim’s family is suing Boeing, The Guardian reports.

DONE DEAL FOR PETERS? Michigan's Gary Peters is throwing his hat in the ring to take over as the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Both he and Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) seemed confident about his chances of landing the post when they spoke to our Stephanie Beasley on Thursday. Peters will be the most senior Democrat on the panel next Congress after Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, who is expected to stay on as ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

FLORIDA BRIDGE UPDATE: The NTSB said Thursday that it had found design errors in the Miami bridge collapse that killed six people in March. Cracks found in the 174-foot bridge are consistent with “an overestimation of the capacity” of a critical section “and an apparent underestimation of the demand (load) on that section,” investigators said, citing a review by the FHWA’s Office of Bridges and Structures. Tanya has more for Pros.

BIZ IN THE BAYOU: The Senate Small Business Committee is holding a field hearing in Louisiana today on how small businesses benefit from smart rail shipping regulation. Led by Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), the hearing will feature testimony from Paul Roberti, chief counsel of PHMSA, and several private sector leaders. According to the American Chemistry Council’s Scott Jensen, two of the witnesses will highlight the need for policy reforms at STB and DOT on service and rate issues and tank car standards. He also issued MT a cruel reminder that it’s 60 and sunny in New Orleans as D.C. recovers from the first winter storm of the season.

— “When Elon Musk tunnels under your home.” The Atlantic.

— “For auto groups, tariffs overshadow benefits of the USMCA.” POLITICO Pro.

— “Ford's blueprint to turn self-driving tech into profits.” Automotive News.

— “Here are 5 new infrastructure projects we’ll likely get with Amazon.” Greater Greater Washington.

— “Silicon eyed as way to boost electric car battery potential.” Reuters.

DOT appropriations run out in 22 days. The FAA reauthorization expires in 1,779 days. Highway and transit policy is up for renewal in 685 days.

CORRECTION : The Nov. 14 edition of Morning Transportation incorrectly described the nature of DOT’s TIFIA program. TIFIA provides loans.

Follow us on Twitter Kathryn Wolfe @kathrynwolfe



Sam Mintz @samjmintz



Stephanie Beasley @steph_beasley



Brianna Gurciullo @brigurciullo



Tanya Snyder @tsnyderdc