Will We Have an AV Delaware?

Delaware is the First State, meaning the first state to adopt the United States Constitution, and, I'll add, at a time when that document's seminal place in our history was not assured. Delaware is also known as the state of incorporation for many large corporations that have no connection with the state - no factories, no headquarters, and no staff - due to the corporate friendly laws that have created an onshore equivalent of an offshore tax haven. This saves corporations millions of dollars and starves those states where these companies actually operate from collecting the tax revenues that any reasonable person would consider their due.

Think business models

A little context: Right now, we have a transportation system in which most people own the vehicles in which they ride each day. Ownership and vehicle operation are thus located in the same state.

But this may change IF we transition to a shared-use fleet model of transportation, whether it is today's car companies, ridehailing companies, tech companies, rental car companies, transit agencies, or who knows what kind of public or private entities actually own the AVs on our roads. Will there be one national company with a virtual monopoly, a few companies that pretty much divide major markets (similar to air travel), many different kinds of business models, or a public-private mix that leaves transportation-vulnerable riders to poor service of inadequately-subsidized agencies? And what will the role of public sector and non-profit transportation be?

No one knows.

No one knows if the average person will be better or worse off than today in terms of their transportation options. No one knows whether older adults and people with disabilities will be better served than they are today. And almost no one has even thought about what to do about rural areas, where it is unlikely that anyone will make a profit from transit or shared-use transportation or what we can do to avoid leaving rural communities behind when the AV transition happens in big cities and their suburbs.

So what the heck does this have to do with AVs?

I'm writing this post imagining the assumption, albeit an assumption that could prove false, that we will have a passenger transportation system of primarily shared-use AV fleets.

What is to prevent one state - an AV Delaware, if you will - from being THE main state for vehicle registrations?

Presumably, this would be a state with lenient requirements for registration, maybe technology licensing (if that becomes the norm or required), and insurance. We would still have 50 state standards, but, for large companies, there would, for all intents and purposes, there would be that one sweet state. What about a state inspection system with lax standards?

And where would this leave transit? Looking at the history of car companies lobbying Congress and having cushy relationships with key federal agencies, it doesn't take much to imagine transit retaining its lowly, poor service, except in certain cities.

What can prevent this scenario from emerging?



I hate to go to the source, but it would really help to limit campaign contributions - meaning get rid of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission - which would take a constitutional amendment. Just a monumental feat, but it would limit the influence of big money.

What else could prevent this? Federal leadership. This is certainly doable and Congress is likely, in my opinion, to take the lead at some point. This aspect of AV regulation might not happen, however, until we see AVs en masse on our roads. After all, we did not see vehicle safety regulation at all for decades after automobiles appeared on our streets and roadways. We have a different mindset now, so I do not expect decades to pass.

The question is whether such legislation and regulation would favor the companies providing the transportation or whether it would be oriented toward the actual people using the shared AV fleets and transit services. I don't mean to be a downer, but the latter is not what we in the US have seen when it comes to either accessibility for people with disabilities or transportation equity for low-income communities, whether in urban or in rural areas.