A bill just passed this week by the Senate will allow car manufacturers to put tens of thousands of new self-driving cars on the road each year, but an attempt to open the floodgates on self-driving trucks in the same bill was voted down.
The American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act, or AV START Act, was passed with bipartisan support through the Senate on Wednesday. If signed into law, the bill will allow automakers to sell up to 80,000 autonomous cars each year, bypassing current safety regulations. Automakers will only qualify for the exemptions if they can show that their self-driving vehicle is at least as safe as cars currently on the road.
AV START would allow an increasing number of exemptions each year. In the first year, up to 15,000 exemptions can be issued; 40,000 in the second; and 80,000 in the third.
Currently the bill only applies to autonomous vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), pushed to include autonomous trucks in the bill as well, but that motion was voted down.
Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Association, was also pushing to include trucks in the regulation. According to Spear, a cohesive nationwide regulation for all vehicles is necessary. But others voiced concerns that trucks would need separate regulations from cars given the fundamental differences between them.
“We need to have a more complete understanding of the safety, workforce, and policy implications of highly automated trucks,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI). Sen. Peters also cautioned that while some may assume that autonomous trucks will be safer than those driven by truckers, “we cannot allow such premature conclusions to stand in this Committee’s way of talking specifics.”
Now that the measure has been voted down, other trucking groups including the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association have signaled their willingness to help draw up autonomous truck legislation.
“We will work closely with members of the Commerce Committee to craft legislation that takes into account the impact autonomous technology will have on professional drivers, small businesses and most importantly, highway safety,” said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA according to Go By Truck.
Source: Peters, futurism, truckinginfo, gobytrucknews, fleetowner, detroitfreepress, truckersreport
I’d like to thank Chris Spear from the ATA for taking time away from being a consummate moron and weighing in on the subject. Your years of playing Big Rig on playstation provide a lot of insight.
I thought the ATA and OOIDA were suppose to be helping the truckers? How does autonomous trucks help us?
Am I missing something here, it would appear that autonomous trucks would put us outta work?
Some kid with a joy stick operating these vehicles from home, like drones, for minimum wage?
Autonomous trucks will never put us out of work…
To many factors involved for computers to do ALL of our duties.
Not going to happen people!
What I want to know is who is lining Thune’s pocket.
I hope this fails miserably, the computers are hacked, and its Armageddon. And these companies lose everything they have in lawsuits…
Given that the onboard radar systems work sometimes and fail for no reason, and kick off cruise if it doesn’t do a panic stop. I can see a good reason to be hesitant to have fully automated trucks or cars on the road
As I speed towards retirement age most of the baby boomers who are older than me will already be out of the work force. Our parents have 5, 6, 7 or more children, the baby boomers had 2.5 children. When all the boomers retire who is going to drive the trucks. When the boomers hit their 80’s and 90’s would it not be nice to have a self-driving car so we can continue to get around and not have to rely on our children or the elders bus. Yes it’s scary the thought they are doing away with our jobs, instead look at it as they are looking to their feture without reliable baby boomer truck drivers.
I for one am looking forward to the day that I can ride my mobility scooter up the ramp of My very own Class A Motorhome and ask it to deliver Me to a scooter friendly RV Park somewhere in Sunny Mexico!
They didn’t have to vote it down, but it certainly tells us a lot about the people that were in favor of it. This is a dead issue, there is to much going against it and it certainly would not make hauling cheaper, quite the reverse actually.