As the self-driving car industry continues to revolutionize the way Americans travel, a contentious battle is brewing over who gets to write the rules governing these vehicles. The concept of "Bootleggers and Baptists" - a term coined by economist Bruce Yandle to describe unlikely alliances between special interest groups and moral crusaders - may seem like a relic of the past, but it's being applied to the self-driving car debate with eerie relevance. On one side, tech companies like Waymo and GM are pushing for federal regulation to standardize the development of self-driving cars, while on the other, conservative groups are advocating for state-level regulations that would allow individual states to set their own rules. But what's driving this divide, and who will ultimately hold the reins in shaping America's self-driving car future?
Bootleggers, Baptists, and the fight over who gets to write America's self-driving car rules.
