FMCSA Denies Exemption for Driverless Trucks
One problem with the development of autonomous commercial vehicles that is often overlooked is things other than driving that a trucker may do as a part of his or her job. One such example was noticed by Waymo and Aurora, and as such they petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to allow the autonomous trucks some leeway in fulfilling a certain requirement. The FMCSA said no.
Details
The requirement is the placing of warning devices 100 feet in front of and behind a truck when it is making a stop on the shoulder of a highway. Naturally, a device with level-4 autonomy (no human input) would find this to be quite a challenge, so the two companies instead suggested warning beacons on the top of the truck that could brighten when the truck needed to pull over for whatever reason.
The FMCSA denied the claim saying that the two technological companies could not prove that these warning beacons would provide a level of safety and warning at least equal to the warning devices, but said they are not entirely opposed to the idea in the future. “FMCSA notes that this decision does not preclude applicants or others from seeking an exemption to use better-defined warning beacons for specified companies in particular locations, as one of the bases of the agency’s decision here is the broad reach of applicants’ request” The FMCSA wrote in its decision.
Conclusion
If this hurdle is going to be overcome by the developers of the autonomous truck, it is going to have extremely rigid standards for the warning beacons, such as locations on the truck and from brands that have proven to pass safety standards. With the beacons needing to be at least equivalent to warning beacons from 100 feet away, the technology is at a disadvantage, and will have to work harder to reach the goal.
It will be interesting to see how autonomous trucks deal with other driver tasks, such as refueling: Will there be humans manning the refueling stations as there were in days of old? Will there be charging stations in the ground that the trucks drive over? We will have to see.
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