This fireside chat recap is from Day 3 of FreightWaves’ F3 Virtual Experience.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Gain a strategic advantage through self-driving truck partnerships
DETAILS: Autonomous trucking startups are working together to urge California to allow high-autonomy trucks to drive on state roads, but they also are determined to separate autonomy from zero emissions, the agenda that will get diesel trucks off the road in the next two decades.
SPEAKER: Jim Mullen, chief administrative and legal officer, TuSimple Holdings
BIO: Mullen has more than 15 years of executive leadership experience in the trucking industry and is a board member of the American Trucking Associations. Prior to TuSimple, Mullen was acting administrator and chief counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
WATCH NOW: Startups work together to influence autonomous regulations
KEY QUOTES FROM MULLEN
“We work very closely with our competitors [and] other industry stakeholders, say CVSA and law enforcement organizations on: ‘How will this product become commercialized? What are you going to do with weigh stations and those sort of things?’”
“We believe the commercialization of this product is 2024, which is three years away. With all due respect to my colleagues at FMCSA, the three-year time period ought to be sufficient to get that advanced driving system rulemaking across the finish line. Yes, there’s some urgency, but we don’t mean six months. It could run its course and still get done in plenty of time.”
“California seems to be trying to tie AV development and deployment to EV. All of the AV developers are agnostic to the powertrain whether it’s diesel, whether it’s electric, whatever. I don’t think California can afford to sit on the sidelines forever and ignore the safety benefits, the productivity benefits. It’s a greener product.”