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Ford will begin testing self-driving cars on ride-hailing company Lyft’s network with human drivers at the wheel for backup, the companies said Sept. 26.

As the Obamacare reform debate rages on in full force, U.S. Sen. John Thune doesn’t have his sights set entirely on the headline-stealing topics of health care and tax reform. The always busy South Dakota Republican is also eyeing legislation for the growing autonomous vehicle market, or self-driving cars.

Autonomous vehicles are the wave of a rapidly approaching future that is already bringing increasing amounts of “smart” technology to cars and trucks, and could eventually make passengers of everyone in a vehicle.

The technology that gives cars superpowers to see around corners and through walls won’t be on the first self-driving rides hitting the road in the next few years.

Top automakers and tech companies are warning state officials the current regulations for testing self-driving cars may be too burdensome and could make it too hard or even impossible to test in Massachusetts, a move experts say would delay the economic and safety benefits expected from autonomous vehicles.

Uber grounded its fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh for a few hours the morning of Sept. 18 as the company investigated a crash involving one of its vehicles.

Navistar’s president and CEO told a Senate panel last week that autonomous vehicle technology likely won’t eliminate the need for truck drivers, but drivers may need to gain new skills as they’re asked to manage several trucks at once.

Uber’s fleet of self-driving cars has logged more than 1 million autonomous miles since the company started offering rides a year ago in Pittsburgh.

In a musical fantasy for Daimler AG’s Smart brand, performers at the Frankfurt motor show this week literally sang out the virtues of an autonomous two-seater, with the spectacle suggesting there’s more fiction than fact in robo-cars.