The challenge represents a new way of working for the DOT, one tailored to a rapidly changing world. That shift is largely the work of Anthony Foxx, President Obama’s secretary of transportation since July, 2013. His job—make the US transportation system as safe and efficient as possible—is the same given to his predecessors. But the tools for meeting that mandate are very much different.
In the next few months, Foxx will speak at CES and South by Southwest—neither of which are common venues for the head of the DOT. “It probably does seem a little weird,” he says. “I’m standing on top of one of the crustiest, stodgiest sectors in America.” But the world is changing, and he wants the US to be ready.