WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) this week delivered remarks at a press conference at the U.S. Department of Transportation with Secretary Elaine Chao announcing the federal grant awards to study autonomous driving systems (ADS), including $7.5 million for the state of Ohio and university groups.



The ADS Demonstration grant will be allocated to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and its consortium, which includes the Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC), The Ohio State University, and DriveOhio.



“This is fantastic,” Portman said. “It’s a beautiful day here in Washington and all of the demonstrations and the wonderful research the DOT is doing is being showcased. I love the karma vehicle platform, who couldn’t love something called karma? You know, we need a little more karma around here. But I want to, today, pay special tribute to our secretary, because of her vision and her personal commitment to keeping America on the cutting-edge in terms of autonomous vehicles in particular, and new technology and innovation more broadly.



“Coming from Ohio it’s very important. You know, we’re a big car state, I’m co-chair of the Auto Caucus in the Senate for that reason. But this, it takes a push, doesn’t it? And it takes a commitment from the top, and I want to thank her for that. Of course I also want to thank her for caring about safety and as part of innovation understanding that many of our constituents are concerned about that. They’re concerned about privacy and confidentiality. So those are things that we have to resolve if we’re going to make progress moving forward, but keeping our great country on the cutting edge is really important, and thanks to her leadership and thanks to what all of the folks here at DOT are doing, I think we are in a good position.”



NOTE: On March 21, 2019, Portman, Brown, and the entire Ohio delegation – including Reps. Troy Balderson (R-OH), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Bob Gibbs (R-OH), Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), Bill Johnson (R-OH), Jim Jordan (R-OH), David Joyce (R-OH), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Bob Latta (R-OH), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Mike Turner (R-OH), and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) – sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao in support of ODOT’s application for this grant.