Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Busch beer used a jingle that went “It’s cold and it’s smooth and it’s waiting for you.” So for the star of its Super Bowl ad this year, Busch Light has chosen the smoothest guy they can think of: Kenny G.
In the new spot, one hiker hands the other a Busch Light and says, “Y’know, whenever you crack open a Busch light, the mountains start singing.” Then, a group of giant outdoorsy types appear over a nearby mountain ridge and start singing the classic jingle, “Head for the mountains/the mountains of Busch/head for the mountains of Busch.”
Then, one says, “Hit it, giant Kenny G!” The saxophonist appears and unleashes a super-smooth riff while one hiker marvels, “So smooth!” The giant outdoorsy types start singing again as Kenny plays them out.
Billboard reports that Kenny, a notorious perfectionist, played his part of the commercial 100 times to get it exactly right. “It was an awesome opportunity,” he tells Billboard, sharing that he plans to have a few friends over on Super Bowl Sunday for his special spicy Asian-style chicken wings.
Kenny says he’s also excited to see the halftime show, which will star legendary rappers Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, rap superstar Kendrick Lamar and the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige.
“It’s going to be great because I’m a fan of all of them,” Kenny tells Billboard. “Because I like people who are good at what they do and they are all really, really good at what they do!”
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee announced it hit new fundraising highs, raking in $10.7 million in December and $157 million in 2021. Both figures are records for the committee in a non-presidential election year.
The haul by the DNC and its joint fundraising arm, first published by ABC News, provide a war chest to a party that’s set to face tough midterm election races across the country as the Biden administration sees poor polling numbers across a wide range of issues.
A new ABC/Ipsos poll finds troubling disapproval numbers for the administration’s handling of inflation, the economy, crime, among other issues. Only 1% of Americans believe the state of the economy to be “excellent,” according to the polling data, a clear series of hurdles the campaign arm of the Democratic Party must overcome if it wishes to maintain its razor-thin majority on Capitol Hill. Republicans only need to flip five House seats and one Senate seat currently held by Democrats to take both chambers of Congress.
The DNC, helmed by former Senate candidate turned Biden ally Jaime Harrison, was able to rake in large sums of cash, but recent reports allege fissures between Harrison and the White House, according to a report from NBC News.
Neither Harrison nor the White House reportedly have a clear strategy on how to rebound Biden’s struggling reputation, either, according to the report. Questions remain if those are obstacles the DNC — and Harrison — will navigate alone.
Without mentioning the report by name, Harrison took to Twitter Sunday to defend himself and his work.
“Only in DC … can you break a fundraising record & have folks complain it isn’t enough. That’s what the DNC did in ’21! The DNC work isn’t always easy & covid has created its own challenges. Our offices have been closed since 2020, but despite barriers we are making a difference,” Harrison tweeted as part of a longer thread.
“To unnamed sources … if you expect me to go away or roll into a ball and whimper… you picked the wrong one. The focus is upending the party of fraud, fear and fascism. You have the mission, now get with the program,” Harrison continued.
An advisor to President Joe Biden told ABC News Sunday that it has full confidence in Harrison’s leadership at the DNC.
“President Biden and Democrats are united – we’re focused on lowering costs for the American people while talking to the American people about our accomplishments – we created more jobs than in any one year in the history of the country and passed a historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the advisor said. “Jaime Harrison has been a critical partner in this effort, helping share our message with the American people, while working to put Democrats in the best position to win in 2022 and 2024.”
Democratic South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., defended Harrison’s leadership in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, saying that the DNC leader believes in “fighting rather than switching.”
“He knows what it is to run. He knows what it is to lose,” said Clyburn. “Jaime Harrison is just what we need.”
And despite potential tumult between leadership and the White House, the DNC saw particular gains in its grassroots fundraising program, which also saw its best off-year pull. The grassroots team brought in $6.1 million in December, while the group’s major donor team raised $2.5 million over the last December averages.
One million people donated to the committee in 2021, beating out the previous record set in 2009 by at least 200,000 donors. Its end-of-year push surpassed the group’s $9.1 million haul in November.
The DNC now has $65 million cash on hand, a spokesperson told ABC News, which puts the group near even with late winter totals from the Republican National Committee, who ended November 2021 with more $65 million cash on hand. More recent RNC disclosures are not yet public.
Back in April, the group announced at least a $20 million investment in midterm battlegrounds, sending resources, such as increasing staffing, to key states such as Georgia, Florida, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, hoping to replicate the successes in the Georgia runoff elections for this upcoming cycle, Harrison said at the time.
“We’re going to start our coalition-building earlier,” Harrison said in April, during the announcement of the multi-million dollar investment. “You’ve heard the criticism of the Democratic Party, ‘Why are they just sending people to our community three months before the election?’ Well, folks, we are going to end that right now. We are going to start sending people to your community now.”
(NEW YORK) — On the cusp of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States is battling back the biggest surge of the virus yet with the omicron variant.
Cases, even while receding in some places, are near record levels. And daily deaths, while lower than the peak of last winter, are still averaging more than 2,000 nationwide.
Despite pitched battles over masks and vaccines, life appears somewhat normal in many respects — kids are going to school, people are going into work and large indoor gatherings and events are being held.
So, while it may be hard to imagine, many experts suggest 2022 could be the year COVID becomes an endemic disease, meaning it is always circulating within the population but at low rates or causing just seasonal outbreaks.
During a press conference Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the U.S. can get “sufficient control” over COVID-19 so it “does not disrupt us in society, does not dominate our lives, not prevent us [from doing] the things that we generally do under normal existence.”
This is because the virus will start running out of people to infect as people become immune and follow mitigation measures such as mask-wearing and testing if they have symptoms.
“We have the tools with vaccines, with boosts, with masks, with tests and with antivirals,” Fauci said.
As an endemic disease, COVID-19 would shift from becoming a global health emergency to a virus that the world learns to live with.
Public health experts say many societal changes are needed for a time when the virus circulates but is not as disruptive, such as targeted testing, more vaccination, better treatments and allowances for staying home when you’re sick.
“We really need to be shifting our thinking to how do we live with this virus rather than can we make it completely go away,” Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told ABC News. “So I think we need to sort of move into the mode of minimizing the impact of the virus as much as possible in terms of health, economic and social disruption — recognizing this virus is going to be there.”
People who are sick will be advised to stay home or wear masks in public
When the virus does become endemic, experts say people will be advised not go into school or work while sick and instead stay home, unlike before the pandemic.
If you have to leave the house, it could remain common to wear a mask on public transit or in indoor spaces.
“It will become a culture of if you’re sick you stay home,” Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News. “Don’t come to work, don’t go to school, don’t send your kids to school. There will be more of an appreciation of the collective responsibility that we have for each other.”
Currently, federal law does not require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees although some states, such as California, New York and Washington, have laws requiring it.
Antivirals may become more common in doctor’s offices and hospitals
In addition to vaccines, some antiviral treatments, from Pfizer and Merck, have come out in the past several months, specifically for those who test positive or had symptoms recently developed.
Studies have shown that these antivirals can help prevent hospitalization, especially those who are at high risk of severe illness.
Experts stress that even after the emergency phase is over, antivirals should not be considered a substitute for vaccines, but rather an extra layer of protection, specifically for at-risk groups.
“The distribution of antivirals is really important in terms of making sure immunocompromised people and people with disabilities have that sort of protection,” Abdulah Shihipar, a public health researcher at Brown University, told ABC News.
Brewer agrees and says he thinks the treatments for COVID-19 will be similar to those for HIV in that they will get better and better over time.
“HIV is no less pathogenic today than it was 40 years ago but the difference is we have very effective treatments, we have excellent antivirals against HIV,” he said. “So I think as antivirals become available that they will play a very important role” in combating COVID-19.
Shihipar says he hopes the federal government comes up with a long-term plan for distribution whether that means a program people can sign up for to get cheap subsidized drugs, setting up at pharmacies, delivering it to rural areas and so on.
Testing will be more strategic such as just screening people with symptoms
Currently, the U.S. has a model based on two types of testing: diagnostic for symptomatic people to see if they are positive for COVID, and preventive for asymptomatic people to make sure they are not infected before participating in activities or seeing others.
But in a world in which COVID-19 is more seasonal of a virus, experts say the country will have to shift to more focused testing, particularly focusing on the symptomatic.
“Now we kind of test just to test everybody, it should be more focused,” said El-Sadr. “For people who are symptomatic, if you have symptoms, it is a good idea to get tested, absolutely. So I think focusing on people who are asymptomatic will be very important.”
Right now, an average of 1.7 million tests is being administered per day in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts say that, during peaks, a minimum of 2 million is needed to keep up with demand. Supplies have been short in some cases as manufacturers ramp up production of at-home tests and omicron redefines infection levels in the country.
El-Sadr also says testing can be used for specific high-risk activities such as eating indoors with family members who are unvaccinated or having a social gathering with someone who is immunosuppressed as opposed to generally for indoor gatherings.
“We have to think of what is the strategic use of testing,” El-Sadr added.
Brewer believes testing programs currently in place at schools, such as students testing before returning and then undergoing weekly testing, won’t work in the long run.
“It’s logistically and financially too cumbersome and expensive and slow,” he said. “Given that we know up to 40% or more of people can be asymptomatic when infected and we know asymptomatic people can spread disease, we just kind of need to operate under the assumption that anyone is potentially infected and do things like hand hygiene and vaccination rather than relying on a testing strategy.”
Improved ventilation standards in workplaces and schools could be implemented
Experts say that improving indoor air quality will be one of the most important tasks, specifically as states begin to roll back mandates and mitigation measures.
Making sure indoor air is being recirculated will lower rates of cases and prevent outbreaks.
Shihipar says the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had standards for health care settings (which have since expired) that need to be expanded to all workplaces.
“We need to change the way we deal with indoor air, like how do we properly ventilate these spaces — not just for COVID but for flu and all these other diseases,” he said. “How do we make the air cleaner so that the disease spreads less?”
He continued, “We need emergency temporary workplace standards from OSHA. One for all workers would actually regulate employers to make their workplaces safe in terms of ventilation, in terms of capacity.”
Shihipar added that he’d like to see the government giving each teacher a certain number of portable air filters for their rooms and the governments and setting up clear standards of air regulation for school districts.
We may need annual COVID vaccines
Experts have suggested that annual COVID-19 vaccines, just like the flu shot, could become a reality in a world where the virus is endemic to keep antibody levels high.
They could even be adapted to combat variants just the flu shot is manufactured to combat which strains researchers think will be the most dominant.
Brewer said it will depend on two factors: how long immunity lasts after vaccination and how much the virus changes.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 884,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 31, 10:10 am
Prime Minister Trudeau tests positive
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he tested positive for COVID-19 Monday morning.
“I’m feeling fine — and I’ll continue to work remotely this week while following public health guidelines,” Trudeau tweeted. “Everyone, please get vaccinated and get boosted.”
Jan 31, 10:04 am
‘Partygate’ report finds ‘failures of leadership and judgement’ by UK leaders
The initial findings of a long-awaited investigative report into lockdown-breaching parties allegedly attended by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff were published Monday, saying, “there were failures of leadership and judgement.”
The probe led by senior civil servant Sue Gray looked into claims that Johnson and his staff flouted COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on England in 2020 and 2021 by holding parties at 10 Downing Street, his official residence and office in London. Johnson has been facing growing anger and calls for his resignation over the allegations, which are also being investigated by London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
“At least some of the gatherings in question represent a serious failure to observe not just the high standards expected of those working at the heart of Government but also of the standards expected of the entire British population at the time,” Gray wrote in the 12-page report, which included two blank pages. “At times it seems there was too little thought given to what was happening across the country in considering the appropriateness of some of these gatherings, the risks they presented to public health and how they might appear to the public.
“There were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No. 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times,” she added. “Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.”
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told ABC News in a statement earlier Monday that Gray “has provided an update on her investigation to the Prime Minister.”
Johnson is expected to address members of Parliament during Monday afternoon’s session.
Jan 31, 7:38 am
‘Partygate’ report delivered to Boris Johnson, UK government says
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has received a highly anticipated report from an investigation into allegations that he and his staff attended parties during England’s strict lockdown, the U.K. government said Monday.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told ABC News in a statement that senior civil servant Sue Gray “has provided an update on her investigation to the Prime Minister.”
Johnson is expected to address members of Parliament during Monday afternoon’s session.
The prime minister is facing calls for his resignation over claims he and his staff flouted COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on England in 2020 and 2021 by holding parties at 10 Downing Street, his official residence and office in London.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service is also investigating the so-called “partygate” allegations.
Jan 31, 4:37 am
New York City offering free home delivery of antiviral pills
New York City’s health department is now offering free, same-day, at-home delivery of COVID-19 oral antiviral medications, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.
“Delivering the antiviral pills to you at home if you’re an eligible New Yorker and it’s for free,” Adams said during a press conference at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. “We want you to take advantage of this. This is a great deal and a great program we put together, and it’s proven to keep people out of the hospital, particularly those who are at-risk or seriously ill. It’s a win-win for us.”
The city’s pharmacy partner, Alto Pharmacy, will deliver antiviral pill treatments Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer, and Molnupiravir, made by Merck, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. Both medications were approved in December for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19.
“New York is one of the only places in the nation where we are doing this free deliver,” Adams told reporters.
With a limited supply of pills, the city restricted delivery to only residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have mild or moderate symptoms.
“Oral antiviral pills, like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, taken for five days help stop the virus from reproducing, which reduces the amount of virus in the body and prevents symptoms from getting worse,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi said during Sunday’s press conference.
Howard Hesseman, best known as disc jockey Dr. Johnny Fever on the CBS series WKRP in Cincinnati, died Saturday of “complications from colon surgery,” his manager, Robbie Kass, confirmed in statement to ABC News. He was 81. A member of the San Francisco improv group The Committee and a real-life DJ back in the 1960s, Hesseman played out-of-work actor-turned-history teacher Charlie Moore for four seasons on the ABC comedy Head of the Class. He also portrayed architect Sam Royer, who married Bonnie Franklin‘s character Ann Romano on ninth and final season of CBS’ One Day at a Time, and recurred on Boston Legal and That 70’s Show. His numerous other TV credits include The Rockford Files, Laverne and Shirley, Fresh off the Boat, Chicago Med, Mike & Molly, CSI, House and Crossing Jordan. He also hosted on Saturday Night Live several times. On film, he appeared in Shampoo, The Sunshine Boys and Silent Movie, among others…
Paramount Plus has unveiled the official trailer for its highly anticipated sci-fi series Halo. The clip, set to a cover of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” features American Gods‘ Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, the game series’ unstoppable super soldier, in action. Co-produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Television company, Halo also stars Designated Survivor‘s Natascha McElhone, Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Bokeem Woodbine, The Witcher‘s Natasha Culzac, Reef Break‘s Yerin Ha, and Penny Dreadful‘s Danny Sapani, among others. Halo premieres March 24…
Fox’s The Masked Singer revealed the three groups of singers from the singing competition’s upcoming seventh season — introduced as, “The Good, The Bad, and The Cuddly” — in the show’s new trailer. Among them are a fairy, a meerkat, a green ogre, a frog prince, a furry astronaut and a mosquito, among others. The Masked Singer, hosted by Nick Cannon and along with a panel of industry professionals — Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke — returns March 9…
(NEW YORK) — Former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst died Sunday, her family confirmed. She was 30 years old.
In a statement, Kryst’s family wrote, “In devastation and great sorrow, we share the passing of our beloved Cheslie. Her great light was one that inspired others around the world with her beauty and strength.”
“She cared, she loved, she laughed and she shined,” Kryst’s family added. “Cheslie embodied love and served others, whether through her work as an attorney fighting for social justice, as Miss USA and as a host on Extra. But most importantly, as a daughter, sister, friend, mentor and colleague — we know her impact will live on.”
Kryst died by apparent suicide in New York City, where she lived.
Just hours before the incident, she shared a photo of herself on Instagram and wrote in the caption, “May this day bring you rest and peace.”
Kryst was crowned Miss USA as Miss North Carolina in May 2019. She earned her law degree and an MBA at Wake Forest University. Following her graduation, Kryst became licensed to practice law in both North Carolina and South Carolina and worked as a civil litigation attorney. She also worked pro bono for clients who were low-level drug offenders.
Kryst also became a correspondent for Extra and was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards.
In response to the news of her death, Extra paid tribute to the former Miss USA winner and said, “our hearts are broken.”
“Cheslie was not just a vital part of our show, she was a beloved part of our ‘Extra’ family and touched the entire staff,” Extra wrote on their Instagram page. “Our deepest condolences to all her family and friends.”
Kryst spoke out about mental health during her reign as Miss USA, saying she spoke with a counselor and took steps to protect her mental health.
“I do a lot to maintain my mental health, and the most important thing that I did is talk to a counselor,” she wrote in a post on the Miss USA Facebook page in 2019. “When I’m not talking to a counselor, I take time at the end of every single day to just decompress. I unplug. I shut my phone off. I don’t answer messages. I just sit and watch my favorite movies.”
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent, said Monday on Good Morning America that when someone dies by suicide, people may wonder if they missed warning signs. But there should be no blame.
“If you’ve lost someone to suicide, this is not your fault,” said Ashton, who wrote the book Life After Suicide after her ex-husband died by suicide five years ago. “It can be difficult to pick up on these because what’s on the surface may not reflect what’s on the inside.”
If someone is worried about a friend or loved ones’ mental health, specific signs that people can look for include a person giving away their possessions and pets, saying they are a burden, showing behavioral changes like being more withdrawn or expressing feelings that they’ve lost hope, according to Ashton.
“The first and most important thing is you have to actually ask them, ‘Are you having thoughts of suicide or self-harm?'” said Ashton. “This will not put an idea in their head. If they answer yes, take that seriously. Do not leave them alone. Assure them there is always hope and help.”
Ashton continued, “Acknowledge that you can see they’re in pain. If necessary, bring them to an emergency room and get professional help.”
If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
Spider-Man: No Way Home topped the weekend box office for the sixth time in its seven-week run. The film, with no new major releases to challenge it, delivered an estimated $11 million stateside tally to $735.9 million. The overseas audience boosted No Way Home past the $1 billion mark; its cumulative global box office is now $1.74 billion.
Scream finished in second place, scaring up just under $7.4 million in its third week of release. It has racked up a total of $62.1 million, here in the States, surpassing the $38.2 million its predecessor, 2011’s Scream 4, made during its entire domestic run. Internationally, the film has collected a total of $44.1 million, bringing its current worldwide total to $106.2 million.
Settling into third place was Sing 2 with an estimated $4.8 million. Its six-week total now stands at $134.5 million stateside and $133.4 million overseas, making for a global total of $267.9 million — the highest-grossing animated movie of the pandemic era by far.
The romantic drama Redeeming Love landed in fourth place, pulling in just shy of $1.9 million in its second week of release. Its two-week domestic tally currently stands at $6.5 million, to go along with $41,433 overseas.
Rounding out the top five was The King’s Man with an estimated $1.8 million. Its box office total here in the States sits at $34 million, but is enjoying its biggest success overseas, where it has racked up a whopping $80.4 million. The movie’s worldwide tally is currently at $114.4 million.
(BOSTON) — Boston is digging out from the record-tying snowfall left behind by this weekend’s massive nor’easter.
Boston tied its record for most snow in one day in January with a whopping 23.6 inches.
The Boston suburb of Sharon, Massachusetts, saw even more snow, with 30.4 inches recorded in Saturday’s storm.
More than 100,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm, mostly in Massachusetts. About 3,000 customers remained without power in Massachusetts Sunday night.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu lifted the city’s snow emergency Monday morning and said schools will be open.
Bu it’s not just New England feeling the freeze this weekend.
Temperatures plunged as low as the 20s in Florida on Sunday, reaching 25 in Palmdale and 28 in East Naples.
Temperatures fell to record lows of 30 degrees in Vero Beach, 32 in Fort Pierce and 35 in Fort Myers.
Temperatures in the Sunshine State will start to warm up on Monday.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 884,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 31, 7:38 am
‘Partygate’ report delivered to Boris Johnson, UK government says
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has received a highly anticipated report from an investigation into allegations that he and his staff attended parties during England’s strict lockdown, the U.K. government said Monday.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office told ABC News in a statement that senior civil servant Sue Gray “has provided an update on her investigation to the Prime Minister.”
Johnson is expected to address members of Parliament during Monday afternoon’s session.
The prime minister is facing calls for his resignation over claims he and his staff flouted COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on England in 2020 and 2021 by holding parties at 10 Downing Street, his official residence and office in London.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service is also investigating the so-called “partygate” allegations.
Jan 31, 4:37 am
New York City offering free home delivery of antiviral pills
New York City’s health department is now offering free, same-day, at-home delivery of COVID-19 oral antiviral medications, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.
“Delivering the antiviral pills to you at home if you’re an eligible New Yorker and it’s for free,” Adams said during a press conference at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. “We want you to take advantage of this. This is a great deal and a great program we put together, and it’s proven to keep people out of the hospital, particularly those who are at-risk or seriously ill. It’s a win-win for us.”
The city’s pharmacy partner, Alto Pharmacy, will deliver antiviral pill treatments Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer, and Molnupiravir, made by Merck, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. Both medications were approved in December for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19.
“New York is one of the only places in the nation where we are doing this free deliver,” Adams told reporters.
With a limited supply of pills, the city restricted delivery to only residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have mild or moderate symptoms.
“Oral antiviral pills, like Paxlovid and Molnupiravir, taken for five days help stop the virus from reproducing, which reduces the amount of virus in the body and prevents symptoms from getting worse,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi said during Sunday’s press conference.
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — A future where motorists share streets and highways with driverless cars may still be years away, but transportation experts are saying now’s the time for elected leaders to plan for that scenario.
Pennsylvania is the latest state to test drive the idea.
The state’s Senate Transportation Committee approved a non-partisan bill on Jan. 26 that would expand regulatory rules concerning the operation and testing of highly automated vehicles, aka HAVs, and allow them to operate without anyone inside.
Legislators could vote on the bill later this year — if approved, it would go into effect 90 days.
Transportation policy experts told ABC News that while there’s clearly a need to create legal guardrails before the vehicles become commonplace, a unified national framework would be most efficient.
Bryan Reimer, director of MIT’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium, told ABC News that while state actions are good in the short term, it’s more important if they can spur a bigger movement.
“It is clear we need to create a responsible disclosure when things happen with automated vehicles,” he told ABC News. “There needs to be a discussion.”
The Pennsylvania Lawmakers who sponsored SB 965 have said that they created it to boost their state’s HAV industry, which includes a self-driving test lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and eight private companies.
Under current Pennsylvania law, a human must be in the driver seat of an autonomous vehicle while it’s in operation. The new bill removes that requirement.
Some states, such as Texas, Florida and Georgia, already allow HAVs to be operated without a human inside as long as the vehicle is registered with the state.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., SB 965’s lead sponsor, told reporters at a Jan. 5 news conference that companies are heading to other states with more lenient rules on driverless vehicles.
“We dare to stay ahead of the curve,” Langerholc said.
Similar to laws in other states, Pennsylvania’s proposal would require vehicle owners to register within the state and remain at the scene of any accident involving another vehicle or a pedestrian.
Vehicle owners also must “submit proof of financial responsibility to the department self-certifying that the highly automated vehicle is covered by insurance or proof of self-insurance in an amount not to exceed $5 million,” according to the bill’s current language.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Yassmin Gramian, a supporter of the bill, said the autonomous vehicle industry already has generated 6,300 jobs for the state — and SB 965 becoming law would mean adding even more.
The bill has the support of several groups, including the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce.
“There’s added economic benefit that will be created and produced for many years,” Gramian said during the Jan. 5 news conference. “We cannot wait and become reactive anymore. The industry is moving very fast.”
While the bill has broad support from legislators, one Pennsylvania-based transportation researcher told ABC News that leaders haven’t covered all of their bases.
Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, warned lawmakers in an op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the bill’s current language lacks specific guidance in several areas.
Specifically, Koopman told ABC News, the bill lacks details on the potential legal liabilities of HAV companies linked to incidents, particularly if said vehicle doesn’t have a single owner or operator.
The current bill “is filled with ambiguities,” Koopman added. “If an ordinary citizen gets hurt, or possibly killed, it’s unclear who to get compensation from.”
MIT’s Reimer also said the bill doesn’t address the training that local law enforcement will need to properly regulate HAVs and investigate incidents. The National Transportation Safety Board currently investigates all crashes involving self-driving vehicles.
“I would argue states generally don’t have the technical expertise to regulate a feature set that falls predominantly under federal regulations,” he added. “It’s not just about waiting for police response. They need to get the data from the companies and look at software.”
Koopman also noted that, according to its current language, the bill would supersede any local regulation on autonomous vehicles, such as those put in place by former Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto that stipulated companies must issue constant reports about self-driving field tests.
“One of the things is,” Koopman continued, “we have a system that is working fairly working well now.”
Koopman, who worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation and is a member of a committee that developed autonomous vehicle safety standards for the Society of Automotive Engineers International, said he’s reached out to state lawmakers to get more clarification on the bill’s safety measures.
Although Langerholc said the bill would incorporate the SAEI standards, Koopman noted that the bill’s current language does not.
“If they want to use public roads as a laboratory, they need to provide something in return and lay out the rules now,” Koopman said. “Otherwise we’re going to head to more court battles.”
As of Friday, Koopman said none of the bill’s sponsors has returned his request to speak. Langerholc’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
The transportation experts said that as more states begin considering their own HAV-related regulations in the coming years, the best solution still would be federal guidelines to protect both people and commerce.
“It is a failure of national policy,” Reimer said, “that states are creating this patchwork system.”
