Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019 - 12

The autonomous car is coming, but ...

WHERE WILL IT DRIVE?
Little has been done to pay
for infrastructure changes
BY DALE BUSS

A

ccomplishing the vision of
a completely autonomous
transportation system would
require the public and private
investment of trillions of dollars over
the next few decades. But some say
that before automotive and technology
executives, policymakers and others
can even consider implementing such
a vast overhaul, America faces a potentially preemptive obstacle: bringing its
existing infrastructure up to snuff.
"Trying to promote the wide deployment of highly automated AVs with
a crumbling road infrastructure is a
bit like installing a new chandelier
in a house that's on fire," said John
Peracchio, acting CEO of Conduent
Transportation, a Florham Park, N.J.based company that provides the
brains for tollways and other transportation systems.
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shift * october 2019

"But this is not a regulatory matter
- it's a political and economic matter."

There has been broad and bipartisan agreement in Washington, D.C.,
for many years that America may need
to spend trillions of dollars to fix a
ground-transportation infrastructure
that is dilapidated in many areas, but
that has led to little decisive action.
"Every policymaker knows something needs to be done," said Robyn
Boerstling, vice president of infrastructure for the National Association
of Manufacturers, which favors a new
federal infrastructure program to
maintain the global competitiveness
of U.S. factories.
NAM is typical in warning that infrastructure investment now amounts
to only about one-third what it was
in 1960 and that, without action,
America will lose nearly 6 million

jobs by 2040. "But it's always been
a high hurdle to achieve a $1 [trillion]
or $2 trillion infrastructure package,"
Boerstling said. "We still need an
overarching federal vision attached
to what the states might be doing."
That has been difficult in the face
of political gridlock and record - and
growing - federal debt.
In July, Reuters reports, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators unveiled
a proposal to authorize $287 billion
in federal government spending over
five years to maintain and repair the
country's aging highways, bridges
and tunnels, but Congress still faces
the tough task of finding a way to pay
for it. Meanwhile, the federal fuel tax
is at 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline
and 24.4 cents for diesel and hasn't
risen since 1993. The tax helps support transportation programs.
Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019

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