Hi everybody. Welcome to Shift, podcast about mobility. I'm Pete Bigelow, your host and reporter at the Automotive News.

This is Leslie Allen, editor Shift magazine. And Alexis St John, covering tech and suppliers.

Joining us in a few minutes on the podcast today is Hillary Kane, Vice President of Technology, Innovation and Mobility Policy at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation in Washington, D.C.

We're going to talk about ongoing efforts to get some sort of federal

automated vehicle legislation enacted. We'll talk about controversy involving V2X and many more things.

But first, Leslie and Alexa, a very busy week

involving news on a mobility front.

We have hints that General Motors might pursue some sort of

unmanned aerial vehicle at the same time that Boeing says it might wrap up work on such things and we also have kind of first and

foremost in my mind this week after two and a half years grand jury has

returned a criminal charge against the Uber safety driver who was involved in that

self-driving test vehicle crash that killed the pedestrian back in March of 2018. Leslie, what did you think about that charge

and what do you foresee on the horizon

as far as how this case plays out?

Mostly, Pete, I just have questions.

I know that you have personally been to the scene of the accident.

I want to know why it took so long. I mean, why did it take them two and a half years to charge the driver?

From talking with some people in the legal realm this week, Leslie, I understand that it's

not uncommon for it to take years for charges to ultimately be brought. What is curious in this case is that

March of 2019 one year after the crash the Yavapi County Attorney's Office

opted to clear Uber of criminal liability. They made a statement that the company itself was not going to be held

liable in any way. But separately we have Maricopa County now bringing a charge against Raphael and Vasquez the safety driver.

...