A group of Taiwanese opposition lawmakers is touring the US to study tech rules and city governance, a modest but friendly signal for Taiwan-US ties.

• Seven KMT legislators, including Hsu Chiao-hsin and Lo Chih-chiang, are on a 12-day trip covering San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and New York.
• In San Francisco they met city officials to talk about tech innovation, smart transport and social welfare policy.
• Several rode Tesla and Waymo self-driving cars around the city and came away impressed by how well the technology works on real streets.
• They praised San Francisco's loose, innovation-friendly rules and said Taiwan could copy that approach for its own self-driving car laws.
• The group also met the San Francisco-Taipei sister city committee, thanking overseas Taiwanese groups for keeping the relationship warm.

Outlook: The lawmakers plan to bring their findings back to Taiwan's legislature to push for more flexible rules on self-driving cars and startups.