President Obama said the United States of America is the "most powerful nation on Earth" during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night.

To truly live up to that, the country has to be at the forefront of several different areas, including the advancement of technology in the automotive space.

Speaking at the North American International Auto Show (Naias) in Detroit on Thursday, that's why U.S. Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx announced that the country aims to spend $4 billion over the next decade to push the development of autonomous cars, as reported by Autoblog.com.

Foxx (pictured below) said the funding request will be part of President Obama's 2017 budget proposal, helping to launch pilot programs to further test and accelerate self-driving technology.

"We are on the cusp of a new era in automotive technology with enormous potential to save lives, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transform mobility for the American people," Foxx said, as reported by Autoblog.

The Department of Transportation's (DOT) revised guidance on automotive technology added: "This is an area of rapid change, which requires DOT and Nhtsa (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to remain flexible and adaptable as new information and technologies emerge. All the department's activities in the area of automated and connected vehicles will keep it's life-saving mission as their focus."

Google and automakers alike have stuck by 2020 as the targeted date for self-driving vehicles to hit the road, however, some industry experts forecast that fully autonomous cars will take a bit longer than that four-year window.