Self driving truck

Trucking safety advocates are at odds with corporate-backed attempts at implementing a roadside safety exemption for autonomous trucks. For those unaware, current regulations require drivers to use three emergency reflective triangles, or at least six fusees or three liquid-burning road flares, if they stop on the road for reasons other than traffic.

Autonomous Operation Levels

In today’s edition of The Daily Dash, the battle lines are being drawn in the regulatory fight over broker transparency. Plus, J.B. Hunt announced several executive changes, and self-driving startup TuSimple secures $350 million in funding.

Self-driving trucks will drastically cut down on the need for truck drivers, while also disrupting allied segments like insurance, fuel stations and truck stops.

In today’s edition of The Daily Dash, a driver’s training matters more than his or her age when it comes to safety performance; Navistar and TuSimple promise a self-driving truck by 2024, and Convoy opens the door to dedicated freight.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for social distancing, even while working. For the freight industry, the adoption of autonomous vehicles might be a good start.

COVID-19 is driving change in industry that highlights a new way businesses may operate going forward. Plus, air cargo companies accused of jacking rates, warehouse hiring rises and trucking’s image is getting a makeover.

Secretary Chao spoke on the need for addressing legitimate public concerns on safety, security and privacy in futuristic transport technology, without hampering innovation.

Waymo is partnering with Valley Metro, a public transportation authority in Arizona, to shuttle people to and from public transportation stops via autonomous cars – thus planting its feet firmly in the race to put self-driving vehicles on the road.

Signs are pointing to a new reality: self-driving trucks will help the industry. And the people who keep it running will continue to show us why they’re such an important part of the supply chain.

New truck orders jumped in January, reaching their second highest level on record, according to data from FTR and ACT Research.

Trains are easier to run with autonomous vehicle technology, so they should come before self-driving cars, right?

The U.S. Senate is set to pass a self-driving vehicle bill, and like similar legislation in the U.S. House passed early in September, it excludes commercial vehicles. The Senate bill will not include vehicles larger than 10,000 pounds, Reuters reported.

As the Congress works on developing legislation aimed at regulating self-driving vehicles, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is looking to guide that legislation with less of a regulatory hand, according to Bloomberg.

Proponents of autonomous trucks found plenty to be happy with during Wednesday’s Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on the technology.

The U.S. House passed driverless car legislation on Wednesday, but the bill does not address commercial trucks and the likelihood of trucks being included is uncertain at this point.

Road crews have traditionally used a “crash truck” to protect workers. It’s often the first – and last – line of defense for construction workers, but it leaves a driver in that vehicle exposed to greater risk. The Colorado Department of Transportation hopes to change that, thanks to self-driving technology.

Autonomous trucks, it turns out, may not be coming for the truck driver’s job after all. While many are predicting the demise of the worker due to automation, a leading expert on robots says that it will be many years before robots achieve the machine learning capabilities to operate amongst humans.

According to a report in a German newspaper, Daimler has now been swept up in the emissions cheating scandals that have been raging across Europe in recent years.

The first unofficial pictures of Waymo’s self-driving truck have emerged, creating a stir among the companies racing to become the first to make a production autonomous truck available.