Overnight Tech: Lawmakers to test self-driving cars

LEDE: The Senate Commerce Committee will tackle the booming (and much hyped) business of self-driving cars Tuesday.

A hearing on Tuesday afternoon will bring representatives of several companies working on autonomous vehicles to the panel. Among those testifying will be Google’s Chris Urmson, who is the public face of the company’s self-driving car program, as well as representatives from Lyft, General Motors, and Delphi. Dr. Mary Louise Cummings, an academic at Duke University, will also testify.

Urmson is expected to call on Congress to help the federal government provide companies with more certainty that they will not have to contend with a patchwork of state laws.

{mosads}”To achieve this goal, we propose that Congress move swiftly to provide the Secretary of Transportation with new authority to approve life­saving safety innovations,” he will say, according to his prepared testimony. “This new authority would permit the deployment of innovative safety technologies that meet or exceed the level of safety required by existing federal standards, while ensuring a prompt and transparent process.”

His testimony follows previous acclaim from tech companies for a Department of Transportation plan to provide state lawmakers with guideline policies for working on autonomous car issues.

THUNE, NELSON TO DEMO CARS: Commerce Chair John Thune (R-S.D.) and ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) will receive demonstrations of self-driving cars on Tuesday morning. Thune will ride a prototype Continental Chrysler 300c and Nelson will be in an “autopilot-equipped Tesla Model S.”

FOIA SUPPORTERS DON’T WANT ANY MORE CHANGES: More than 40 groups on Monday sent a letter to Senate leaders urging them to quickly pass a bill to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act “without any further changes that would jeopardize its broad backing.” Groups signing on include Access Now, the ACLU, the American Library Association, the Sunlight Foundation, OpenTheGovernment.org and others.

CLOAKROOM CREATOR DEFENDS APP: The creator of an anonymous social media app for congressional staffers called Cloakroom is defending the platform after a series of news stories that highlighted some of the more unsavory posts on the platform. Creator Ted Henderson said that app actually builds bridges and it is no surprise that “young people in government can be, well, just as crass and offensive as anyone else on social media.”

NO DEAL ON RATE REGULATION: Ahead of Tuesday’s committee markup, there is no compromise in sight for a Republican bill meant to prevent the FCC from regulating the monthly rate that customers pay for Internet service, even though Democrats agree with the broad sentiment. Rep. Frank Pallone (N.J.), the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the bill as written “could undermine the FCC’s ability to protect consumers” and would weaken new net neutrality rules.

ON TAP:

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark up a bill to prevent the FCC from regulating the rate paid for monthly Internet service.

At 12:30 p.m., the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the future of self-driving cars.

At 2 p.m., FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai testify at a House Appropriations subcommittee.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The House as soon as Wednesday is slated to pass a bill to let more small Internet service providers avoid transparency requirements under the net neutrality regulations.

Legislation to give the public more access to government records could pass the Senate as soon as this week, according to supporters.

A Russian court has upheld a regulator’s ruling that Google violated antitrust rules, according to Reuters.

The Justice Department is discussing how to proceed with a criminal investigation in which investigators have been stymied by the encryption of the popular instant messaging service WhatsApp, The New York Times reports.

The country’s most valuable and visible tech companies are making their presence felt in the 2016 presidential election.

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