(Bloomberg) -- If you have nightmares about robots takingover the world, here’s something that might really scare you: sometech industry veterans in Seattle want to ban human drivers from a150-mile stretch of Interstate 5 and reserve it for self-drivingcars, trucks and buses.

Testing ground

The ribbon of highway between Seattle and Vancouver should be usedas a testing ground for autonomous vehicles, according to aprovocative proposal that says embracing the technology would savelives, ease congestion and be less expensive than a high-speed railsystem.

Tom Alberg, co-founder of Madrona Venture Group and a boardmember of Amazon.com Inc., and Craig Mundie, a former MicrosoftCorp. executive, will release the plan Monday at a cross-borderinnovation conference in Vancouver sponsored by Microsoft. Theysuggest phasing it in over a decade, starting with allowingself-driving vehicles in car-pool lanes.

In an interview, Alberg said autonomous driving could take “twoyears, five years or 10 years” to become widespread. “But this isgoing to happen, and ultimately I’m convinced these will be saferthan human drivers. Why not start planning for this now?”

If government leaders on both sides of the border form a team toexplore such a plan, they would attract investment from Google,Uber, Ford and General Motors, he said, adding that doing so wouldput the region at the forefront of innovation and distinguish itfrom cities like Chicago, where an alderman wants to ban autonomouscars because safety concerns.

Safety has become front-of-mind since a man died in Florida after his Tesla Model S in“autopilot” mode failed to react to a truck crossing the road.Tesla has sought to put the incident in perspective, blogging thatit was the first known fatality in more than 130 million miles ofdriving using its Autopilot features, compared with a death every94 million miles for all cars.

NHTSA guidelines expected soon

The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration is expected to soon release guidelinesfor self-driving vehicles to help states draft their own laws. Buteven in the absence of rules of the road, automakers andride-hailing companies are moving quickly to stake out theirpositions. Uber is running self-driving trials in Pittsburgh, andGoogle is testing its own technology in California, Arizona, Texasand Washington state.

The Seattle-Vancouver proposal calls for a decade-long plan tofirst allow self-driving cars and trucks in carpool lanes andultimately allow only autonomous vehicles on the highway duringpeak travel periods. Human drivers would be allowed to cruise thestretch between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. weekdays and on weekends.Self-driving vehicles will move more people and goods on existinginfrastructure since they can travel more tightly and at higherspeeds with less braking, the report says.

“This proposal is not for the timid as initially it will behighly controversial because of natural skepticism about thelikelihood and timing of autonomous vehicles and failure torecognize the benefits,” the reports says. But “widespread anduniversal adoption of autonomous vehicles is inevitable.”

Related: Self-driving cars to cut U.S. insurance premiums40%, Aon says

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