Whether it is fuel savings, safer commutes or freed-up time behind the wheel, motorists have many reasons to embrace self-driving cars.
But another group is just as eager to see these vehicles on the road: politicians.
Lawmakers from California, Texas and Virginia are wooing the autonomous-car industry, along with the jobs and tax revenue that come with it.
They are financing research centers, building fake suburbs for testing the cars and, perhaps most important, going light on regulation, all in an effort to attract a rapidly growing industry.
The prize: a piece of the estimated $20 billion automakers and other companies will spend globally on development over the next five years, according to an analysis by Gartner.
“The first thing is, don’t do anything to discourage,” said Richard M. Biter, assistant transportation secretary in Florida, which is among the states chasing the nascent industry. “It’s like the Hippocratic oath.”
Virginia, for example, is trying to attract carmakers with its clogged highways.
In June, the state designated 70 miles of roads in Northern Virginia for autonomous-car testing. The roads run from hilly to flat and congested to clear, giving carmakers a variety of conditions for testing.
“If we are able to help companies by facilitating the process for them, we’re going to help bring business to the state,” said Myra Blanco, director of the Center for Automated Vehicle Systems at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. Opened in 2013, the center is funded by state and federal agencies and private companies.
Ms. Blanco said her lab would help auto manufacturers run experiments and analyze data, along with taking care of licensing and insurance issues.
Michigan, sensing a potential threat to its traditional leadership position in the auto industry, is taking no chances.
In July, officials unveiled a 32-acre testing ground in Ann Arbor specifically for researching self-driving cars — a mock suburb with asphalt and gravel roads lined by brick and glass building facades, where self-driving cars could be tested away from pedestrians. The state spent $6 million to build the site, with an additional $4 million coming from private companies.
“You can do the same type of test over and over again in identical circumstances,” said Jim Sayer, a researcher at the University of Michigan. “That is almost impossible on public roads.”
The project has already spurred investment. Fifteen companies, including Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota, have committed to spending $1 million each to conduct research there.
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