The focus of Sen. John Thune’s sneak preview of the Washington Auto Show on Thursday was new safety and environmental technologies, but that didn’t keep the South Dakota Republican from spending time with new toys.  

In the midst of a presentation from Ford, Thune’s attention was drawn to a Mustang convertible, and he was quite interested in the features of the newest pickups from the big three.

“Like a rock!” exclaimed Thune climbing in to a shiny new Chevy Silverado, correctly matching the slogan to the manufacturer.  

More seriously, Thune told reporters that his next auto-related project as chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will be to address concerns raised by manufacturers about the need to save space on the telecommunications spectrum to allow autonomous vehicles, i.e. self-driving cars, and those with collision avoidance technologies to communicate with other cars and with the highways.