The Self-Driving Car Fight in Congress Isn't Really About Safety at All

The article employs the 'Bootleggers and Baptists' economic framework to argue that safety concerns mask self-interested regulatory capture by incumbent automakers and plaintiff attorneys. This framing is characteristically libertarian—skeptical of stated safety justifications and suspicious of regulatory motives. While the framework itself is analytically neutral, its application presumes industry skepticism over precautionary approaches, centering corporate and free-market perspectives without substantial counterweight from safety advocates or consumer-protection voices.

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• This article does not address documented safety data comparing autonomous vehicle performance to human drivers in similar conditions
• This article does not center perspectives from traffic safety advocates, consumer protection organizations, or families affected by autonomous vehicle incidents
• This article does not examine whether legitimate safety concerns might exist independently of regulatory capture incentives