Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), key proponent of the House Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee, highlighted potential advantages from widespread adoption of technological advancements in modern society.

“For something like autonomous vehicles, that will help senior citizens and Americans living with disabilities, it means reducing barriers to testing, and setting the standards for how they will be adopted across the world, and provide certainty for businesses and consumers,” the congressman said at a hearing earlier this month.

“America’s global leadership depends on its people to be best in class, and we must give them the regulatory certainty on emerging technologies they need in order to live up to their legacy,” he added.

Republican Congress members are embracing a new technological frontier, announcing their intent to explore the regulation of self-driving cars as part of broader efforts to uphold America’s technological edge against China.

“It’s important that we also take action to ensure the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “The regulatory framework for [autonomous vehicles] must be led by the U.S.,” the chairwoman continued, “to win the future, the U.S. must lead on AVs. We must chart the path so the road is one we design.”

Last year, a bipartisan coalition in Congress set its sights on paving the way for self-driving cars with the launch of the Congressional Autonomous Vehicle Caucus. However, despite their intent to put together legislation that would provide guidance to agencies and industries working towards autonomous vehicles’ deployment, no such bill has yet made it to the president’s desk.

As the autonomous vehicle industry continues to grow, stakeholders and enthusiasts are urging Congress to pass regulations that will ensure America’s leading role in this technological evolution. At a recent Energy and Commerce meeting Jeff Farrah, executive director of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association declared how enacting legislation would “maintain and strengthen American leadership in the AV industry.”

The freight industry is poised to experience a significant shift with the emergence of autonomous trucking. Farrah discussed its potential benefits – from streamlining supply chain operations and bolstering workforce numbers, to improving safety standards. He emphasized that AV trucking is “positioned to substantially decrease the cost of goods while fundamentally improving interstate commerce by changing the manner and speed in which goods move in our country, all while making roads safer for everyone.”

“Given the timeline for AV truck deployment, autonomous trucking is not likely to cause significant displacement of jobs in the trucking industry, but it can serve as one tool to reduce strains on the supply chain caused, in part, by the longstanding truck driver shortage,” he added.

The trucking industry has seen a marginal decrease in the driver shortage, according to data released by American Trucking Associations. The new figures reveal a workforce deficit of 78,000 drivers; however, there is still more work ahead to bridge this gap and keep supply chains rolling across America.

The Biden Administration is taking action to address safety risks across America’s transportation networks. The U.S. Department of Transportation has embarked on a National Roadway Safety Strategy, calling upon stakeholders nationwide to do their part in reducing the number of serious injuries and fatalities occurring along our nation’s roads.

“Traffic crashes cost tens of thousands of American lives a year — a national crisis on our roadways — and everyone has an important role to play in addressing it,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Feb. 3. “Today we are issuing a national call to action and asking all Americans—including private industry, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, and every level of government — to join us in acting to save lives on our roadways.”

The American Trucking Associations has joined forces with the United States Department of Transportation to prioritize roadway safety. The organization is participating in USDOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy, which involves collaboration between government agencies and other stakeholders to reduce traffic-related fatalities across the nation.

“Through our Share the Road program, our Law Enforcement Advisory Board and our ongoing work zone safety awareness campaign, ATA is committing to educate the public about the importance of safely sharing the road with large trucks, practicing safety in construction zones and enhancing the partnership between the trucking industry and law enforcement to address highway safety issues,” said Dan Horvath, ATA vice president of safety policy.

Similarly, companies, such as INRIX Mobility Analytics and General Motors, have joined forces to offer a comprehensive “Safety View” application that promises roadways free of fatality. The cloud-based service is part of their commitment towards Vision Zero initiatives aimed at eliminating any traffic tragedies in the future.

“Now more than ever is the time to invest in and utilize data to better inform the future of our roadway networks and to understand how things may vary based on demographics and at the community level,” Bryan Mistele, co-founder and CEO of INRIX, said in August.

Source: ttnews

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TTP initiative will allow Embark to gain valuable insights from having its system components operating in a carrier’s duty cycle. The program is the first of its kind in that the truck will be owned and operated by the carrier. In prior testing models from Embark as well as other autonomous developers, the developers themselves, own, maintain, and dispatch autonomous trucks with their own drivers behind the wheel during hauls.

Dave Jackson, Knight-Swift CEO, voiced his excitement at taking delivery of the autonomous-capable tractor, “so our drivers and customers can provide direct feedback on the technology as we use it in day-to-day operations to enable new safety and efficiency in trucking.”

Knight-Swift will be placing drivers behind the wheel of an Embark-powered truck to collect data regarding system safety and operational performance.

Embark and Knight-Swift have been working together on several operational initiatives to prepare for the handoff of Embark-powered trucks into Knight-Swift’s daily operations. These initiatives include developing maintenance procedures for AV systems, pre- and post-trip inspections, training and certifying Knight-Swift drivers, and creating escalation policies for maintenance issues. Embark has also worked to trained Knight-Swift technicians on how to service and interact with the trucks.

Embark Guardian, a system designed to monitor the Embark-powered trucks while on the road, is comprised of a combination of cloud-based fleet management software and personnel which will work together to monitor the health and safety of the truck’s system while operating.

Embark believes that the outside perspective and collaboration with Knight-Swift drivers will deliver critical insights to the system prior to the company executing its go-to-market strategy.

“Handing over the first Embark-powered truck to the Knight-Swift team tops off a year in which Embark has made critical strides to close the gap between testing our autonomous technology and scaling it across customer fleets,” said Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues. “The Truck Transfer Program will be a model for the industry as we move from the R&D and pilot phase toward commercialization.”

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In April of this year, a San Francisco police officer noticed the vehicle driving after dark with no headlights on. What should have been a routine stop got a bit strange as the officer approached the vehicle. As he realized it was a driverless car, he tried the door handle to see if he could turn the lights on himself, and when he couldn’t, he stepped back to call the automaker. In this moment, the car pulled away, leaving the confused officer with his lights still flashing behind.

GM Cruise was able to take control of the car and get it pulled back over a short distance up the road, but at this time, the automaker is still unsure what caused the vehicle to pull away.

A recent demonstration of an autonomous Freightliner demonstration held by Torc in Albuquerque, New Mexico, showed that autonomous driving systems are equipped with various backups to enable safer driving conditions, including interactions with law enforcement.

Communication between AVs and law enforcement are still being developed. Currently, one of the first tools available to officers is the ability to call the AV company or fleet about the vehicle in question. This call allows officers to electronically obtain information about the vehicle such as insurance and registration.

Embark Trucks, in conjunction with Texas Department of Transportation, developed the capability for Embark semis to identify and stop for law enforcement vehicles, and built communication protocols and standard operating procedures between autonomous trucks and officers.

In addition to routine traffic stops AVs also need to be able to effectively respond to officers and first responders for other reasons, such as identifying a law enforcement vehicle on the side of the roadway and changing lanes or obeying physical cues from an officer or road worker such as hand motions for directing traffic.

While automakers are working to create systems and redundancies to best respond in these situations, the fact is that this is still new technology and as with any new technology there are bound to be bugs in these early stages, such as the incident with the vehicle in California. So, this begs the question, are these driverless vehicles fully ready to respond in any situation?

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Saripalli stated,  “Given the shortages in truck drivers and well as the current supply chain issues and trying to get things faster and quicker everywhere autonomous trucking makes perfect sense.  At A&M, we want to make sure we are testing and developing algorithms that make autonomous trucking safe.” Aurora and Waymo now have test routes along I-45 from Dallas to Houston. 

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