Autonomous cars got a big bump this week as U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the government would invest $4 billion in research on the high-tech cars and infrastructure improvements related to driverless vehicles.

Foxx said the funding, which was announced at the North American International Auto Show this week, will jump-start the technology, which if were in place last year would've saved 25,000 lives, he said.

“We are bullish on automated vehicles,” Foxx said, according to the Detroit News. “We’re entering a new world here and we know it. We have to have one foot grounded in what we know about safety and apply our thinking to manage this transition. But we also have to have a healthy dose of learning from the industry — what they know — taking into account the possibility the ways we thought about safety have to change.”

The $4 billion will be spent over ten years.

Read more about the plan at the New York Times. And here at Gizmodo.