Leading the Way: A National Task Force on Connected Vehicles
Summary
By bringing wireless communications technology to cars and trucks, we could prevent hundreds of thousands of car crashes every year, saving many lives. We could also reduce commute times, fuel consumption, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and the cost of mobile Internet access. In the longer term, deployment of connected vehicle technology can lay groundwork for better autonomous (self-driving) vehicles. In 2021, the Federal Government should establish a task force to develop a coherent vision through open and inclusive processes, and provide leadership to achieve that vision.
Note: As a working paper, this draft is still under development. The author invites your feedback and comments, which can be sent to info@dayoneproject.org.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
Jobseekers, employees at smaller organizations, and local public workers need more than a weekend crash course in AI. They need practice choosing useful tasks, protecting data, testing outputs, and explaining where human judgment remains necessary.
“What excites me is that it’s very tempting to be very discouraged, and say, ‘Oh, we’ve got these archaic institutions that are calcified and you could never change them.’ But I think we’re in the middle of a technological revolution that will upend lots of things, and does provide a window.”
As Congress considers broader packages to advance critical minerals production and supply chain resilience, science diplomacy vehicles must be part of that conversation, not as an afterthought, but as an intentional and foundational pillar of any strategy.