U.S. autonomous vehicle group picks ex-Senate aide as director

A group representing self-driving car companies is appointing a former U.S. Senate aide as its new head as the industry works to convince U.S. policymakers to speed the deployment of autonomous vehicles and jumpstart stalled legislation.

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) has tapped Jeff Farrah as its first executive director, the group told Reuters…

AVIA members includes Argo AI — backed by Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG — Aurora, General Motors Cruise unit, Ford, Lyft, TuSimple, Uber, Volvo Cars, Alphabet’s Waymo and Zoox, a unit of Amazon.com.

In August, U.S. House members launched a bipartisan effort to help revive stalled legislative efforts to boost self-driving vehicles.