The center of American automobile innovation has in the past decade moved 2,000 miles away. It has (26)_____ from Detroit to Silicon Valley, where self-driving vehicles are coming to life.
In a (27)_____ to take production back to Detroit, Michigan, lawmakers have introduced (28)_____ that could make their state the best place in the country, if not the world, to develop self-driving vehicles and put them on the road.
“Michigan’s (29)_____ in auto research and development is under attack from several states and countries which desire to (30)_____ our leadership in transportation. We can’t let that happen,” says Senator Mike Kowall, the lead (31)_____ of four bills recently introduced.
If all four bills pass as written, they would (32)_____ a substantial update of Michigan’s 2013 law that allowed the testing of self-driving vehicles in limited conditions. Manufacturers would have nearly total freedom to test their self-driving technology on public roads. They would be allowed to send groups of self-driving cars on cross-state road trips, and even set up on-demand (33)_____ of self-driving cars, like the one General Motors and Lyft are building.
Lawmakers in Michigan clearly want to make the state ready for the commercial application of self-driving technology. In (34)_____, California, home of Silicon Valley, recently proposed far more (35)_____ rules that would require human drivers be ready to take the wheel, and ban commercial use of self-driving technology.
