Senate Commerce Committee grills three DOT nominees on safety, freight and autonomous vehicles

Three nominees to senior Department of Transportation posts appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for a confirmation hearing that focused on autonomous-vehicle safety, freight planning and legal oversight of department rulemaking.

Chairman Cruz opened the hearing by introducing the nominees — Serval Oz for assistant secretary for research and technology, Michael Rutherford for assistant secretary for the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy, and Gregory Zirzon for general counsel of DOT — saying, “These nominees fit the bill.”

The hearing came amid committee concern about staffing and program execution at DOT. Ranking Member Cantwell warned the committee that the department needs “a strong safety regime,” and raised concerns about a recently formalized process that she said could allow regulated entities to take actions against safety inspectors.

Oz, who described herself as having led early self‑driving vehicle programs at Google X and later managing digital transformation at a global automotive supplier, emphasized safety as central to her agenda. She cited…