FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with David Noyce, UW-Madison; Dem, GOP lawmakers see need for state-level data center regulations

September 18, 2026

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Prof. David Noyce, director of the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at UW-Madison.

Noyce, the executive associate dean and Arthur F. Hawnn professor of transportation engineering at the university’s College of Engineering, discusses the work being done around self-driving vehicles and other advanced technologies at UW-Madison.

The TOPS lab has existed since 2003, first launched as a partnership with the state Department of Transportation aimed at addressing traffic operations and safety challenges in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The scope of the effort has since expanded to include evolving technologies playing a role in this space, including testing autonomous vehicles on test tracks in the state.

These projects have sought to assess “how vehicles would react … primarily we’re looking how if a pedestrian walked in front of a vehicle, if a bicycle was in front of a vehicle, what would the vehicle do to avoid those type of collisions,” Noyce said.

Parallel to the university research, private companies such as Waymo have been testing their own self-driving vehicles, accelerating efforts in this space.

Noyce draws a distinction between automated vehicles and those that are truly autonomous, which can do all the work to bring a user to their destination, start to end.

“We’re not quite there yet, the Teslas and others will get you pretty close to that once you get moving” but aren’t yet considered fully autonomous given the need for driver input. “We are doing a number of different things to kind of bridge from where we are today to that full autonomous operation.”

Researchers are seeking to understand how evolving AI capabilities will influence the development of self-driving vehicles.

“AI is definitely going to impact how the transportation system and how these autonomous vehicles operate in the future, how they connect with each other, how they become smarter and maybe truly become autonomous, perhaps in a little bit more rapid way,” Noyce said.

A big part of this challenge is addressing public trust concerns with the technology, Noyce said, noting the TOPS lab has been conducting simple test sites to expose members of the public to how it works.

“Once we get people to begin to trust the technology, where can we use it in order to provide a meaningful first step into embedding autonomous vehicles into … the transportation system across the state,” he said.

Listen to the podcast here and see the full list of WisBusiness podcasts.

— Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle see a need to establish state-level regulations on data centers, arguing the local governments advancing moratoriums aren’t equipped to grapple with the huge tech companies pushing these projects.

The Wisconsin Policy Forum this week hosted a Madison Policy in a Pub event focused on data center challenges.

Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay, noted dozens of local moratoriums have been passed in Wisconsin and more are coming, reflecting the public’s concerns over data center project impacts. She argued these data center bans are locals’ only real option to have some control, as they’re unable to “come up with something that would be productive” as well as protective of local interests.

“Our actions have consequences, and so does our inaction,” Habush Sinykin told attendees. “And so by virtue of legislative inaction, what we’re seeing is local communities who are not equipped to take on these big tech giants, doing what they can do, which mostly lately is saying no.”

Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, agreed with Habush Sinykin’s view that the state has some obligation to provide structure and “at least some basic guardrails” for data centers.

He also echoed her concerns about town boards’ ability to deal with the challenges posed by the unpopular data center projects, noting they’re more used to dealing with farm animals getting loose and drunk drivers knocking over road signs.

“Small towns, they just don’t have the resources to do it,” Sortwell said, adding county-level governments looking to set regulations may not have the same “skin in the game” as officials representing the small towns facing the most direct impacts.

Habush Sinykin’s hometown of Whitefish Bay is less than 30 minutes from Port Washington where a $15 billion data center campus is being built. She underlined local concerns she’s been hearing, ranging from worries about air quality and well water impacts to energy affordability, noting “the list goes on and on.”

She argued locals weren’t involved early enough in the Port Washington project planning process due to nondisclosure agreements being involved.

“They found out when it was too late to act,” she said. “So that’s that. That’s something that we as a Legislature, I feel have an obligation to address that lack of structure and oversight.”

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Technology Council President Maggie Brickerman referenced concerns that have been voiced about the possibility of an “AI bubble” in the market leaving taxpayers on the hook for data center infrastructure.

“I think that useful things tend to persist,” she said. “So whatever happens with these big companies, you can think to the dot-com bubble for example. Okay, some companies went bankrupt but the internet did not go away. There is some useful, foundational resource here which will persist in some way.”

Brickerman called for “intentionality” in any state-level approach to regulating data centers, arguing Wisconsin can’t simply ignore the rise of AI and its requirements or take a “blind adoption” approach to the technology.

“Stopping a data center is absolutely not going to stop AI from developing,” she said.

Watch the video.

— The Trump administration has disrupted $2 billion in federal grants going to dozens of local governments, nonprofits and other groups in Wisconsin, according to a new tracking tool.

The Lost Funds website is from the nonprofit States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organizations, detailing impacts on federal funding across the country from the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts.

As of yesterday, the tool had tracked $352.5 million in grants for health organizations and programs in the state that had either been cancelled or frozen, out of a total $1 billion in expected funding.

That’s in addition to $455.6 million in funding for infectious disease control in Wisconsin that was “selectively terminated,” the tool shows, noting those affected include children, older adults and tribal organizations.

Meanwhile, about $267.3 million in federal funding for pollution reduction initiatives in the state has been disrupted, according to the tool.

At the national level, the tracker estimates the total impact to federal funding at $177 billion.

– U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbulah, is reiterating the need to pass the “Cancer Drug Parity Act” even though he “doesn’t think” it will pass this session.

Grothman has long supported the passage of legislation that would require health insurance plans to bill chemotherapy pills and IV chemotherapy the same way.

“We’ve had several committee hearings dealing with healthcare on the subcommittee and on the committee as a whole, and it’s always very depressing to hear the degree to which greed drives our healthcare system,” Grothman said at a Subcommittee on Health and Financial Services hearing this week.

The bill has been introduced in both the House and the Senate. Grothman first introduced a similar version of the bill in 2023.

Over 40 states, including Wisconsin, have some form of law that requires equal billing for oral and IV chemotherapy treatment. The legislation is meant to close the gaps for federal health plans.

See more from the WisPolitics DC Wrap.

— Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dipped to 3.2% in August, the lowest it’s been since December 2025.

The state Department of Workforce Development yesterday issued its latest monthly employment report, showing unemployment fell slightly from July’s rate of 3.3%. The state’s rate remained below the federal unemployment rate of 4.1% for the month.

Meanwhile, the state’s labor force participation rate rose from 64.5% to 64.7% over the month, exceeding the federal rate of 61.6%.

Total employment for Wisconsin grew by 36,900 over the year and 9,300 over the month to reach 3,046,200 last month, DWD reports.

See the release.

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