Autonomous trucking company Plus has hired former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Earl Adams to lead the company’s public affairs and safety advocacy efforts and to advise the company on regulatory developments.
“After nearly a decade on our autonomous journey, we are on the brink of commercializing autonomous trucks,” said Plus CEO and co-founder David Liu in a news release. “Earl’s unmatched experience in transportation policy and his ability to connect diverse stakeholder groups will be instrumental to the next phase of our growth.”
Adams assumes the role held previously by Wiley Deck, another former FMCSA deputy administrator, who left the company.
“I am excited to join Plus and work closely with partners, regulators, and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth path to safely launch autonomous trucks and make our roads safer for everyone,” Adams commented.
“Plus has built a winning position as the autonomy partner of choice to global commercial vehicles makers like Traton Group, Hyundai and Iveco. I am excited to join Plus and work closely with partners, regulators, and other stakeholders to ensure a smooth path to safely launch autonomous trucks and make our roads safer for everyone.”
While deputy administrator at FMCSA under former administrator Robin Hutcheson, Adams led the team in drafting safety rules for autonomous commercial vehicles and served as its liaison to the office of the transportation secretary’s autonomous working group. He also served as the FMCSA’s chief counsel.
Prior to joining Plus, Adams was a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, where he led the firm’s autonomous vehicle working group.
The Biden administration “was focused on leveraging technology to get safer outcomes” in developing autonomous vehicle regulations, he told FreightWaves in an interview last year.
“We were willing to establish guardrails – that is, an actual rule – as opposed to letting the industry dictate what would happen, and I spent the better part of my two and a half years in the administration trying to develop those guardrails.”
