DOT Grants NAM-Backed Waiver for Autonomous Trucks
The Department of Transportation has approved a five-year, NAM-supported exemption for Aurora and other autonomous trucking companies from regulations that require drivers to place warning signals around stopped trucks (Reuters, subscription).
What’s going on: The agency said earlier this month that “it has agreed to allow autonomous trucking companies to use warning beacons mounted on the truck cab to avoid needing human drivers and said they offered an equivalent or greater level of safety.”
- Companies seeking to use the waiver must notify the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and report any crashes in which warning beacons were activated or should have been activated.
The NAM’s role: The decision comes approximately six months after Aurora, which operates about 20 autonomous trucks, requested the exemption—and less than five months after the NAM urged the DOT to approve it.
- “The exemption request presents a practical opportunity to improve safety while accommodating the operational realities of autonomous commercial vehicles,” the NAM said in May. “The proposed warning beacons … offer a reasonable alternative [to warning triangles] that provides approaching motorists with clear and immediate visibility of a stopped vehicle while reducing the need for unnecessary roadside exposure.”
- Citing studies from Aurora and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the NAM said warning beacons have been shown to perform similarly to traditional triangles and fusees.
The last word: Granting the exemption will help “enable the safe deployment of innovative freight technologies across the broader transportation industry while maintaining strong safety oversight and performance standards,” NAM Senior Director of Technology Policy Franck Journoud and NAM Director of Transportation and Infrastructure Policy Kirbie Ferrell told the DOT.
Photo credit: Aurora
