The push toward AI-powered self-driving cars gets major boost from Trump administration

Under the guise of ‘we must keep up with China’, US transportation system is about to be fundamentally transformed in way that negates freedom of movement and it’s all being ushered in by Trump admin. 

The Department of Transportation said Thursday it will ease safety regulations for the development of self-driving vehicles in a move designed to maintain U.S. global dominance in the industry.

The program will exempt U.S. automakers from safety regulations for automated vehicles, or Avs, intended for research or demonstration purposes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) letter.

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement:

“This administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

Duffy stated that the move is part of the DOT’s innovation agenda to move the United States “closer to a single national standard” that promotes innovation by removing regulatory barriers.

NHTSA’s chief counsel, Peter Simshauser, said the move would allow AV manufacturers to “develop faster and spend less time on unnecessary process, while still advancing safety.”

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) said in a statement that it welcomes the administration’s new framework, touting it as a “bold and necessary step” to boost the country’s transition to automated vehicles.

They claim these autonomous vehicles will make the roads safer (by taking driving out of human hands and placing it into the realm of AI) without addressing the loss of privacy and freedom of movement. Self-driving cars are also cars that can be remotely shut down.

AVIA CEO Jeff Farrah stated:

“We look forward to working with Secretary Duffy and his team to implement smart, forward-looking policies that will make our roads safer, expand mobility, strengthen supply chains, and drive American economic growth for generations to come.”

This is yet another example of how the Trump administration is leading us into a Brave New World of technocracy, where fewer and fewer of the instruments used in our daily lives will actually be under our control. AI will control everything. That’s what Project Stargate is all about.

Project Stargate was launched by the White House on day one of its second term in partnership with arch-technocrats Larry Ellison of Oracle and Sam Altman of Open AI. Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are also big-time technocrats with tremendous influence on the Trump White House.

Ellison, Altman, Musk and Thiel all have one thing in common — they are technocrats trying to replace humans with AI in almost every capacity. Those humans who remain employed in most of the important roles in society will be “super humans” who have augmented their physical bodies with invasive technology. In short, they will have become part of a new, superior race of “transhumans.” That’s why they use the term “humanity 2.0.” This involves not just the “Internet of Things” like autonomous vehicles, but eventually the “Internet of Bodies.”

I doubt President Trump understands any of these ideas but he is playing with fire by hitching his train to transhumanists and technocrats like Musk, Ellison, Altman and Thiel.

Trump sees it all as merely keeping up with the Joneses. With China being the main competition.

The technocrats love to play the China card, too, because they know it’s a winning hand for them and their business interests. If we don’t do this or that, China will beat us to the punch and take over our role as world hegimon. Beware of this dangerous false talking point.

According to NTD.com, John Bozzella, president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said the new framework would help ensure that the United States will not “cede AV leadership to China and other countries.”

Cede AV leadership to China? So what? If the Chinese are forced to ride around in self-driving cars, which are essentially a new form of public transportation no longer controlled by the individual vehicle owner, why does that mean we in America need to move in that direction?

This entire push to allow AI to control every facet of our lives gets pushed forward under the guise of “keeping up with China” and not letting China outperform us technologically.

But here’s the rub. China is an authoritarian society and its government finds intrusive tech as a natural match. America, on the other hand, is supposed to be a free society, and yet its leaders are pushing us down the same dangerous path as China. That should be cause for alarm. Because even if the current administration sees this technology as a neutral tool only to be used for benign purposes, you can bet your last digital dollar that a future administration will be more than happy to weaponize it.

©2025 Leo Hohmann. All rights reserved.

Please visit Leo’s Newsletter substack.