FMCSA has ruled that drivers of autonomous vehicles do still need to abide by the same Hours of Service (HOS) rules as everyone else. But FMCSA says that that could change if more data becomes available.
Pronto.ai is an autonomous tech company founded by convicted felon Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski is the former Google engineer who stole trade secrets to found his company, Otto, which was later purchased by Uber. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for what the judge called “the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen.”
Pronto.ai asked FMCSA for an exemption to the 11-hour driving limit and 14-hour day. Because of the autonomous driving system, Pronto.ai wanted to extend the limit to 13 hours and 15 hours respectively.
While FMCSA rejected their application, the reason for the rejection is that there is not yet enough evidence that the exemption would “achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level that would be achieved absent the exemption.”
“The premise that the use of advanced technology should reduce the workload on drivers appears reasonable on the surface,” wrote the FMCSA in their decision notice. “But the absence of data or information to quantify the impact on driver fatigue and alertness leaves the agency with no choice but to deny the application.”
Source: truckinginfo
If there still has to be a ‘driver’ in the vehicle, staying awake and making sure the truck operates safely, there should be no change in rules.
If they ever figure out a way for the self-driving trucks to be absolutely safe by themselves (GOOD LUCK!), then just let them ‘drive’ 24/7.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 Yeah kinda defeats the purpose they want to create 😂😂😂. And any driver who’s riding along, training their replacement robots arn’t too smart.
My concern and you know they’ll try to do it if they can, is basically to imprison the driver in the back of the truck for days, weeks, maybe months on end while the thing just rolls across the country while the driver just lays in the back twiddling their thumbs with absolutely nothing to do other then once every 10, 12 hours, get out, open the trailer doors and sign the paperwork from the shipping/receiving clerk. Of course you know how the trucking industry is. They’ll then pay the driver ten percent of the wages because you know, the trucks doing 90 percent of the work. Yeah right. If I have to be gone for months on end, I’ll sign on to be an ocean shipping merchant marine before I do that crap.
Also wanted to add, along with earning only ten percent of the wages to be trapped in the back of a moving prison with wheels, don’t even think about turning the truck off because you have to use the bathroom. Cause you know some so called college educated desk jockey will be calling you demanding to know why you stopped the truck.
First of all there should be no autonomous trucks if so they should be governed to 60 MPH. Still a danger to society. Technology is not a perfected thing. Talk about a safety problem down the road ( excuse the pun).
KC… dual speed limits make things more dangerous, not safer.
And here, I thought we all agreed that gutless trucks were a HUGE safety problem in and of themselves…
the big question is how will drivers react when they are only required to be ‘ alert on duty’ for only 2 hours a day, the next day 10, the next 4 ,the next 15 minutes.
i love how 60 mph is considered now to be a safe speed. how about 40-45 ? of course in wyoming that is unreasonable, but we all now know how regulators think.
i’ve said this before, we are headed to a model that has a delivery zone outside of every market that is served by autonomous rigs, w/ drivers babysitting between dropyards. and the delivery driver (final mile) handled by professional truck drivers. but that leads to multiple units (doubles, triples, hell there are quads down under) buzzin’ down the highway. the golden parachute crowd will be pushing through that stuff WAY before it will be safe; as-if ever. can you imagine a platoon of quads, full of beer( or soda, it’s the load qualities i’m insinuating) coming on a wind tower base unit, making a interchange manouvre. of course they will realize that the oversize will slow to nill and cross all 3 lanes… yeah yeah mr digital there are algorithms for that; sure there are—
I just like to say one thing I have been driving for about 41yr now and all I here about is safety, safety,safety but all see with all this safety is nothing but more and more problem a hold lot more accident. This so call new guy muller what ever his name is I bet you he don’t even know how to even start a truck but he’s talking about putting a Dammmm truck on the Hi way that drive its self big big big mistake. If he want to make the highway safer if any of these big companies want to make the highway safe get your butt off the telephone take off from those three piece suits and if you can drive truck get behind the wheel and down the highway you will see what the problem is. I see it every day back in the late 70s early 80s accidents was not bad as they are now I would love to talk one of the big shot in the three piece suits about what I have seeing in my 41 years of driving out here on the highway. But until then drivers be good be safe and go with God
we put a man on the moon hey they were not robots get those things off the
road get a real job dude find a cure for cancer or something what a waste of
time and money and effort