Autonomous Urgency: Tesla & Waymo Execs Demand Congress Accelerate Self-Driving Legislation

Senior officials from Tesla, Waymo, and other industry leaders delivered a unified message to Capitol Hill: the regulatory brakes are on too tight.

The Regulatory Roadblock

Executives argued that outdated federal rules are creating a dangerous innovation traffic jam. They claim the current legislative pace—a crawl compared to technological advancement—forces companies to navigate a patchwork of state laws, stifling nationwide deployment and putting U.S. competitiveness in the rearview mirror.

The Safety Pitch

The push isn't framed as a corporate handout. The core argument hinges on a stark statistic: human error causes a staggering majority of road accidents. The industry's proposition? That governed, scalable autonomy could drastically cut that number—saving lives by taking the most unpredictable element, the driver, out of the equation.

Investment Idling in Neutral

Billions in R&D are parked, waiting for a green light. The lack of a federal framework creates uncertainty, chilling further investment and delaying the economic benefits—from redesigned urban spaces to new mobility services—that a mature autonomous ecosystem promises. It's a classic case of capital waiting for bureaucracy to catch up.

The closing thought? While they tout a future of safer roads and sleek robotaxis, remember this is also about securing a trillion-dollar market. In the race for autonomy, the first to scale wins—and these companies are tired of watching the legislative process move at a human driver's pace, complete with unnecessary stops and distracting debates. After all, what's a few more regulatory hurdles when you've already bypassed the need for a steering wheel?

U.S. self-driving companies warn of China’s threat to the AV industry

Here is the full opening statement today before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee from Lars Moravy, VP of Vehicle Engineering at @Tesla.

“ For America to maintain its position in global technological development and grow its advanced manufacturing capabilities, we must enact a… pic.twitter.com/mDXA9pDKhk

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 4, 2026

Democratic Senator Gary Peters argued that self-driving technology is a huge part of the future of the global automotive industry. He also pointed out that Beijing is heavily investing in the production of autonomous vehicles. The U.S. official added that it’s imperative that the TRUMP administration take action to ensure American innovation and standards lead the way on the world stage, rather than China.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz called for modernizing regulations on self-driving vehicles. He argued that innovation won’t stop if Congress fails to act fast, but U.S. officials will simply push it elsewhere. Cruz also acknowledged that China is aggressively working to deploy autonomous transportation at scale.

Waymo’s Chief Safety Officer, Mauricio Pena, urged Congress to pass legislation to advance autonomous vehicles in the U.S. He argued that U.S. leadership in self-driving companies is currently under threat from Chinese companies. 

Waymo’s official acknowledged that the U.S. and Chinese AV companies are competing for the future of autonomous driving. Pena said the firm considers autonomous vehicles a trillion-dollar industry, on par with the importance of flight and space travel.

“We believe Congress has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure American leadership in this industry by creating a national AV legislative framework that sets a high safety standard for this industry.”

–Mauricio Pena, Chief Safety Officer at Waymo.

Pena believes that greater certainty in the industry will unlock more investment. He also argued that greater certainty will prevent bad actors from undermining public trust in the AV technology.

Pena also cautioned that Chinese self-driving companies are scaling rapidly due to state support. Chinese AV companies have the largest AV fleets in the world, followed by Waymo. He believes that the absence of U.S. leadership on national AV legislation will make Chinese AV competitors set the safety and technical standards for the rest of the industry.

Waymo reports incidents with its autonomous vehicles

The Senate hearing comes as multiple U.S. states are allowing Waymo’s self-driving vehicles despite the company’s autonomous cars having had recent incidents. A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated a probe into Waymo late last year after at least 19 incidents in Austin in which Waymo vehicles drove past stopped school buses. One of the firm’s automobiles also struck a student in Santa Monica, California.

Justin Kintz, Waymo’s Head of Global Public Policy, argued that the incidents are edge cases, given that the company is taking over 400,000 trips per week. He also argued that the Santa Monica incident was likely better handled as a person-driven incident.

Cruz also pointed to the potential for autonomous vehicles to minimize traffic, reduce crashes, and help people with disabilities gain independence. He believes that a flurry of federal and state laws would make it much more difficult to introduce safer, more advanced self-driving vehicles into the industry. 

The Senate chair is confident that Wednesday’s hearing examined how outdated regulations are holding back lifesaving technology and that Congress’s plan to fix it. Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy and Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association CEO Jeff Farrah also testified at today’s hearing.

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.