---
title: "The 2020 US Elections Will Completely Transform Autonomous Transportation"
description: "Tesloop CEO Rahul Sonnad predicts the 2020-2024 administration period is going to be completely transformative for the U.S.'s transportation landscape. Sonnad believes that, by this time, autonomous vehicles will even change our roads themselves, with high-occupancy vehicle lanes becoming autonomous car lanes."
date: "2016-10-25"
modified: "2016-10-25"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-2020-us-election-will-completely-transform-the-transportation-industry"
categories:
  - "Advanced Transport"
  - "Self-Driving Vehicles"
tags:
  - "autonomous vehicle"
  - "driverless cars"
  - "tesla"
  - "tesloop"
---

# The 2020 US Elections Will Completely Transform Autonomous Transportation

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/A-BMW-2.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: BMW\</em\>*

## The Politics of Transportation

While most eyes are on the 2016 U.S. election, [Tesloop CEO](<https://tesloop.com/>) Rahul Sonnad is looking ahead to 2020, and he sees autonomous vehicles as a much bigger political talking point than they are currently.

In a [video interview with *TechCrunch*](<https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/23/driverless-cars-will-be-widespread-by-2020/>) contributor Andrew Keen, Sonnad talks about transportation in terms of politics, remarking that the current U.S. administration has been "remarkably grown-up and rational" about transportation, particularly[ with regards to autonomy](<https://futurism.com/the-age-of-the-self-driving-car-u-s-unveils-sweeping-policy-for-autonomous-tech>).

While he notes that the current election cycle hasn't yielded much significant discussion of the transportation industry, Sonnad predicts the 2020-2024 administration period is "going to be completely transformative" for the U.S.'s transportation landscape.

"The technology will be there to have a car that is safer than a human driver by that point," says Sonnad.

*"I think the implications of that are really staggering in terms of both making transportation much cheaper, but also I think you'll start to see at that time a lot more electric transportation, which will make it much cleaner."*

He goes on to predict that autonomous vehicles will eliminate traffic, eventually be used to move freight, and even change our roads themselves, with high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes becoming autonomous car lanes.

## A New Era

Sonnad is positioned to know what he's talking about. Tesloop combines two of the latest and greatest transportation disrupters — autonomy and ridesharing — into one company, providing passengers with one-way transportation between Las Vegas and Southern California using Tesla's Autopilot feature (a human "pilot" is behind the wheel at all times for legal purposes).

As of [last week](<https://futurism.com/elon-musk-every-tesla-car-will-be-fully-autonomous-by-2017>), all Teslas in production will be capable of Level 5 autonomy; Lyft's CEO expects the service to be [driverless within the next five years](<https://futurism.com/lyft-co-founder-in-5-years-our-cars-will-be-driving-themselves>); and Uber has already tested [its own driverless vehicles](<https://futurism.com/breaking-ubers-self-driving-taxis-have-hit-the-streets>). The age of vehicle autonomy may arrive before we even *get* to 2020.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)