Autonomous technology, like passenger vehicles and drones, is on the rise in North Texas. NTX Now's Ron Corning spoke to Ashleigh de la Torre, vice president of public policy at Amazon, Ernest Huffman, program manger for North Central Texas Council of Governments, and David "Nemo" Neal, chief of design at Mozee, about where the industry stands at a recent Dallas Assembly event. Following that conversation, Ron and NTX Now's Miranda Suarez talked with Bart Huffman, a data strategy, security, and privacy attorney at Holland & Knight in Houston, about how the data landscape is changing with the rise of these new technological advancements. These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full conversation, click the listen button above. Skepticism of autonomous technology Many people in the audience at the Dallas Assembly event raised their hand when asked "who here thinks they will never ride in an autonomous vehicle?" De la Torre thinks over time, their minds will change. "I think you'll be surprised about the adoption of this technology," she said. "10 years ago would any of us have gotten in the back of some random person's personal vehicle to get driven from our house to the airport? And now we don't think another thing about it." Physical safety concerns De la Torre said companies who are competing with each other to create this autonomous technology is a good thing for consumer safety. "I think the most important thing industry can do, beyond competing with each other, is ensuring a really high safety bar," she said. "We're talking about regulations and how we're focused on collecting data." Ernest Huffman also said safety is the top priority. "If it's not safe, the regulators aren't going to allow for it to exist in our city," he