Updated on: February 4, 2026 / 7:40 PM EST / CBS News
Washington — Senior executives from Tesla and Waymo testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday, arguing that their autonomous driving systems are safer than human drivers despite recent incidents.
Congress is weighing how to create uniform federal safety rules for self-driving vehicles as deployment grows in major U.S. cities. Currently, about half of states have differing or no rules governing autonomous vehicles, producing a patchwork regulatory environment.
Senators at the hearing said they want to reduce preventable crashes involving distracted or impaired human drivers through autonomous technology, but they voiced concerns about recent AV incidents. “Fully autonomous vehicles offer the potential to reduce crashes on roads, but we have seen the risk of letting companies beta test on our roads with no guardrails,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee’s ranking member.
Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into Waymo robotaxis failing to yield and sometimes passing stopped school buses after multiple events in Austin, Texas — a pattern Sen. Ted Cruz, the committee’s chairman, called “obviously unacceptable.” Earlier in February, a Waymo vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school; the company said the girl darted out from behind another vehicle and suffered minor injuries. Waymo said it identified a software issue and rolled out an update in November, but regulators have since issued multiple violations.
Tesla recently began a robotaxi rollout in Austin. A report analyzing NHTSA data suggested Tesla’s vehicles may have had crash rates worse than human drivers last year. Tesla did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
During questioning, Cruz asked Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Peña what safeguards the company has implemented since the Austin and Santa Monica incidents. Peña said Waymo takes the events very seriously and is continuously evaluating them and deploying fixes. He described software changes already made to improve performance and said Waymo is working with the Austin Independent School District to gather data on lighting and other conditions to incorporate into its systems. Peña noted Waymo safely encounters thousands of school buses every week and is continually learning from operational experience.
Peña said Waymo’s analysis of the Santa Monica incident showed the Waymo driver would have responded faster than models of an attentive human driver and that the system mitigated harm. He reiterated Waymo’s safety claims: “In over 100 million miles, our data shows that we are 10 times less likely to be involved in a serious injury collision as compared to human drivers in the cities where we operate,” and “12 times less likely to be involved in a pedestrian injury collision in the cities where we operate.”
But some witnesses urged more oversight. Bryant Walker Smith, an associate law professor at the University of South Carolina, told the committee there are “no self-driving or driverless cars” in the sense of removing company responsibility: “The companies that develop and deploy AVs are the drivers. This means that an AV is only as safe as the companies responsible for it. We can and should proactively assess their trustworthiness.”
Tesla Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy pointed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s role and the auto industry’s historical safety progress, arguing that gains have plateaued in recent decades as about 40,000 people die annually in U.S. vehicle crashes. He said autonomous driving is the next major opportunity to reduce that toll: “I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the next big jump we have in reducing that number from 40,000 to hopefully a day where it’s zero is autonomous driving. Simply put, an autonomous driver, the system or the computer that operates it, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t blink, and doesn’t get tired.”
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno asked who would accept liability if a collision were caused by software or hardware failure. Moravy replied that Tesla would take liability for such an error in the same way a human driver is responsible under current law. Peña gave a similar answer for Waymo.
Calls for federal rules to regulate safety standards
The hearing underscored bipartisan interest in a consistent federal framework for AVs, even if lawmakers disagree on specifics. Cruz argued against burdensome mandates that don’t save lives and called for a data-driven federal framework to ensure uniform safety standards, liability clarity, and consumer confidence: “If we want to save lives and avoid tragedy for almost 40,000 families each year, we don’t need lawmakers saddling automakers with expensive junk mandates that make little to no real difference. Instead, we should follow the data, follow the evidence, which increasingly shows advanced AVs reduce crashes and prevent serious injuries. We need a consistent federal framework to ensure uniform safety standards, liability clarity and consumer confidence.”
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey sent letters to seven major autonomous vehicle companies seeking details about their remote assistance operations (RAOs) — the remote personnel who intervene when an AV encounters a problem. Markey warned that without safeguards, reliance on remote assistance could create safety, national security, and privacy risks. His letters asked whether RAOs ever “tele-drive” vehicles and how often remote assistance sessions occur.
Markey is sponsoring two bills to increase transparency and limits on AV operations. The AV Safety Data Act would require NHTSA to mandate disclosure of AV data such as miles traveled, injuries involving drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, and unplanned stoppages. “We need more honesty from the industry so that there is in fact transparency in everything that they know that the American public should know as well,” Markey said.
Markey and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal also introduced the “Stay in Your Lane Act.” That bill would require manufacturers to define the specific roads and driving conditions for which their systems are designed and certified, and would prohibit vehicles from operating outside those defined limits. Blumenthal likened the approach to how airplane makers certify aircraft to FAA standards: “Right now we have the Wild West. I want to see some rules of the road so that cars stay within their lanes, so to speak.”
Sarah Ploss and Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.
