Regulating Transportation in an Era of Change

2026-07-26 · Source: The Regulatory Review · Field: Transportation & Mobility — Autonomous Vehicles & Smart Transportation, Public Transportation & Urban Mobility, Transportation Policy & Regulation · Depth: Intermediate, medium

Summary

Transportation expert Leslie Richards highlights critical regulatory challenges facing the sector, particularly concerning autonomous vehicles (AVs) and artificial intelligence (AI) integration. She notes that AVs are currently governed by a patchwork of state and local regulations, with industry pressure for federal preemption, while issues like safety, privacy, data sharing, and cybersecurity remain unresolved. AV deployments are ongoing in a dozen cities and pilot programs for driverless trucks in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Richards also emphasizes growing data governance and cybersecurity risks, citing ransomware attacks and AI-enabled hacking capabilities. She points out the need to rethink public engagement in regulation, especially with AI's potential to generate mass comments. Integrating AI into safety-critical systems like buses and trains poses significant challenges due to potential errors. Effective state and local collaboration requires building relationships and clear financial agreements. Federal funding, exemplified by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), significantly shapes state and local policy, though these priorities can shift with administrations.

Key takeaway

For policy makers overseeing transportation systems, you must proactively address the regulatory vacuum surrounding autonomous vehicles and AI integration. Your focus should be on developing unified federal standards for safety, data governance, and cybersecurity, rather than relying on fragmented state approaches. Additionally, rethink public engagement strategies to genuinely capture community needs, moving beyond outdated comment systems. Prioritize clear inter-agency collaboration and funding agreements to ensure project stability despite shifting federal priorities.

Key insights

Regulating rapidly evolving transportation technologies like AVs and AI demands balancing innovation with safety, public trust, and robust governance.

Principles

• Federal funding drives state/local policy shifts.
• Public engagement systems are currently inadequate.
• Collaboration needs clear financial agreements.

Method

Policymakers must rethink public input mechanisms, exploring face-to-face community engagement or data-driven strategies to understand stakeholder needs beyond traditional comment periods.

In practice

• Implement robust data governance for collected PII.
• Prioritize cybersecurity for connected infrastructure.
• Establish clear funding responsibilities upfront.

Topics

• Autonomous Vehicles
• AI in Transportation
• Transportation Regulation
• Cybersecurity
• Data Governance
• Public Engagement
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, Policy Maker, Legal Professional, Domain Expert

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Regulatory Review.