Until last week, driverless cars were the playthings of dotcom billionaires. These vehicles were forecasted to reach the rest of the country in the eventual future. You were more likely to spot one these vehicles in Nevada’s barren deserts than ever see one in your neighbor’s garage.
Not anymore. A star-studded announcement featuring Google, Ford and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx has brought the automated commute closer than ever. The federal government has set aside $4 billion which is now earmarked for automated vehicle research and development in 2017. The money will be directed into real-world pilot projects as well as providing loans for car buyers. The aim will be to get driverless cars on the road in under a decade.
This is not like other pet projects. The Obama administration fast-tracked the project. Guidelines for next year are expected to be on the table in only six months’ time. This is lightning fast compared to other transportation projects.
This announcement demonstrates the Obama administration playing to its strengths. It is is leaving behind partisan issues. Instead, the administration is making a mark on what is indisputably one of the greatest domestic threats to American lives: the daily commute.
In 2013, there were 30,057 fatal car crashes which killed 32,719 people. The National Safety Council says that traffic fatalities increased in 2015. However, the full data is not yet available.
More Americans are dying on the road now despite the increasing availability of safety features in cars. The NSC says that this has less to do with conditions of the roads or cars and more to with the drivers themselves. Drivers are distracted behind the wheel because state bans on mobile phone use does not curb a driver’s addiction to their device.
Until now, the government’s attempts to keep drivers safe on the roads have been impotent at best. Threats of traffic violations have not deterred Americans from tweeting and driving. Thus, Obama is turning the tables. Rather than wrestling phones out of drivers hands, the administration is providing a way to remove human errors from driving.
This is a cool political tactic that also happens to provide a great service to the people. It may also unintentionally become a last-minute addition to the president’s legacy. Although, this assumes the program is not dismantled by a potential Republican president.
The tactic also suggests that Obama has learned a valuable lesson throughout his presidency. From healthcare to guns to immigration, he has attempted to give Americans what they need. But just as drivers refuse to put down their phones, the population has resisted all three of these changes.
The autopilot announcement demonstrates that Obama has found a new tactic to help people help themselves. Rather than forcing change, he is helping rid America of dangerous driving without further penalizing the drivers themselves.
Those who wrote off Obama’s legacy after this year’s State of the Union spoke too soon. It turns out that the president plays politics very well. This time, he is even letting the states help.