According to Sawyer Merritt, current US laws and regulations for autonomous vehicles lag behind the rapid progress of AI-driven transportation. Citing data from Tesla and Waymo, Merritt highlights that self-driving cars experience significantly fewer crashes per mile compared to human drivers. He emphasizes that outdated legal frameworks, developed before autonomous vehicles were a practical reality, threaten to slow American AI innovation and could cause the US to lose its leadership position to China. This gap underscores a pressing business opportunity for lawmakers, regulators, and AI companies to modernize the regulatory landscape, enabling safer deployment of autonomous vehicle technology and supporting continued market growth. Source: Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt, Jan 5, 2026)