Butzel Long attorney W. Patrick Dreisig Op-Ed on Autonomous Vehicles appears in Crain's Detroit Business

Detroit should be in autonomous-vehicle driver's seat

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recently said that LA could be the first place in an urban center where autonomous vehicles could be promptly ordered up like a car service in a real neighborhood and not just in a protected area. My response: Why not Detroit?

This is the perfect time for Detroit to decide to become Motor City 2.0: the worldwide capital of autonomous vehicles.

Detroit is already in the early stages of redeveloping its downtown. The state of Michigan already has enacted legislation providing for the testing of AVs. Enormous research and development investments in AVs have been made by Detroit OEMs. The legal community — including subject-matter experts at firms like mine — are ahead of the curve in developing the legal infrastructure to support a testing "safe zone" in the city of Detroit.

Click here to read the complete article in Crain's Detroit Business.