Google, continuing its forays into the nascent technology of self-driving vehicles, has turned to Washington, D.C.-based legal and lobbying firm Venable LLP for Capitol Hill help on automotive-related lobbying issues.

The search giant in late April retained Venable to monitor H.R. 22, the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act, or DRIVE Act. That massive highway bill would authorize nearly $278 billion in Highway Trust Fund appropriations over the next half-dozen years for various highway and transit programs. Included in the bill is funding for the Department of Transportation to study and evaluate transportation projects and innovations such as vehicles that exhibit low or no emissions, as well as “various advanced technologies.”

Google carGoogle’s much-discussed self-driving car project, which remains in the testing phase, could see a public rollout by 2020. The autonomous car, which has no steering wheel or gas pedal, is the work of the Mountain View, CA-based company’s research and development arm, Google X.

The project faces a series of regulatory hurdles: currently, legislation has been passed allowing driverless cars on public roads only in four U.S. states, as well as Washington, D.C. The Department of Motor Vehicles in California — one of the only states where autonomous cars are legal — in December proposed a ban on self-driving cars that didn’t include steering wheels, pedals and a licensed driver who can take the wheel in the advent of an emergency.

In a bid to remove potential innovation roadblocks in the burgeoning industry, the DOT in January announced it would revise existing policy guidelines on autonomous vehicles previously submitted by the agency charged with regulating self-driving cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The DOT also unveiled a 2017 budget proposal that would provide $4 billion over the next decade for pilot programs that test and accelerate the development and adoption of vehicle automation. That 10-year investment would include collaboration with leaders in the technology and auto industry to develop federal guidelines on the deployment and operation of self-driving vehicles, as well as a multistate framework for their use.

The Google account will be handled by Chan D. Lieu, a senior legislative advisor in Venable’s legislative and government affairs group, which represents technology firms. Lieu was formerly director of government affairs, policy and strategic planning at the NHTSA, and was also a senior professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Google, along with four other companies currently working on self-driving cars — manufacturers Ford and Volvo, along with ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft — in late April announced the formation of a coalition that would promote driverless technology and work with the federal government to enact national standards for self-driving cars.

That lobbying group, titled The Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, said its first objective would be to “work with civic organizations, municipalities and businesses to bring the vision of self-driving vehicles to America’s roads and highways.”

Venable will also represent this coalition. David Strickland, a partner in Venable’s regulatory practice and a former administrator of the NHTSA, will serve as the coalition’s counsel and spokesman.

In a March interview with Barron’s, Strickland said that it would be "very difficult for the Department of Transportation and the NHTSA to issue a prescriptive, pre-market regulation for automated vehicles," but that instead, work with individual states is where we could expect to see "some foundational expectations about how these systems should work."

In a statement regarding the formation of the coalition, Strickland said “the best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards, and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles.”