DETROIT — Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday that the artificial intelligence powering self-driving vehicles is now "safer" for passengers than human hands behind the wheel, and he predicted more Americans will become one-car families as the technology is widely adopted.

Buttigieg made the prediction during a discussion with Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz on stage on the opening day of the Detroit Auto Show.

“In my view, we have now very clearly reached the point where a typical automated vehicle is safer than you or I would be,” Buttigieg told Guskiewicz.

Buttigieg said he found the auto show floor lacking in highlighting automated vehicles, even as driverless taxi services like Alphabet's Waymo plan to expand to more U.S. cities this year, including Detroit.

The former transportation secretary and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who is considered a potential 2028 presidential contender for Democrats, said he can see a future where more Americans shed the second family vehicle in favor of ride-sharing with AV services — a development that could have major implications for automakers in their future passenger vehicle development and sales.

“Are you going to continue to have the second most valuable thing you own being an object that sits in your driveway that you don't use 96% of the time?" asked Buttigieg, who lives in Traverse City. "For a lot of people, the answer is no. So driving as a service is going to become more important."

The advent of self-driving vehicles being shared among multiple motorists could transform land use, as fewer vehicles in circulation will need less surface area for parking in cities, Buttigieg said.

"These are developments that are tectonic," Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg cautioned the audience of automotive industry leaders and journalists not to think of the widespread adoption of self-driving cars as being "seven years away."

"There's a grain of salt around all the predictions that have been made about this stuff," Buttigieg said. "But still, I think we are underestimating the change that could happen in the medium term and need to be more proactive about preparing for it."

Buttigieg, who led the U.S. Department of Transportation from 2021 to last January, said federal policy is lagging behind the rapidly developing automated vehicle technology.

Guskiewicz asked Buttigieg about several challenges facing the auto industry.

Buttigieg criticized President Donald Trump's trade policies, one day after the second-term Republican president touted them before a Detroit Economic Club crowd.

Trump contended that tariffs on imported cars and parts are making America wealthier and attracting new investment. In speaking to an auto industry-heavy audience in Detroit, Trump welcomed Chinese and Japanese investment in assembly plants in the U.S., "using our labor."

"They were going in the opposite direction. Now they're pouring back," Trump said of the effect of tariffs on imports.

Buttigieg noted that the overall manufacturing sector has not seen an increase in total jobs since Trump took office last January.

"You would think if we did a dramatic, radical, disorienting, pro-domestic manufacturing policy, you would at least continue and hopefully beat the level of manufacturing employment and growth that we've seen," Buttigieg said. "And instead, the reverse happened and went the wrong way over the last year."

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