Industry Says Autonomous Vehicles Will Improve Safety, Cut Congestion
This story appears in the Dec. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.
WASHINGTON — The mainstream adoption of autonomous vehicles is bound to enhance safety, improve fuel economy and alleviate congestion along freight corridors, federal officials and trucking industry stakeholders told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The hearing, which was set up as a roundtable discussion Dec. 6, was meant to allow the top voices on autonomous vehicle technology to share their insight with policymakers.
AUTONOMOUS AUTUMN: Recent video coverage of autonomous vehicle developments
“Clearly, there’s a huge opportunity for safety benefits and that’s pretty much where the department kind of starts its interest,” Blair Anderson, undersecretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, said at the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee roundtable.
“We’re trying to use as many tools as we can to get this technology on the road,” Anderson added.
The rapid developments in autonomous trucks embraced by several carriers will continue to require drivers inside the vehicles, American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear told the subcommittee while addressing concerns that smart technologies eventually would eliminate human contributions.“This could be, perhaps, a solution to the chronic driver shortage down the road,” Spear told House lawmakers. “I think you’re always going to need drivers in the trucks in the cityscapes, doing pickups [and] deliveries.”
He made the comments a day before touting the technology’s potential safety benefits at a Senate hearing.
Proponents argue longhaul trucking will be an ideal area for the self-driving technology, which the industry keeps developing and adopting. In late November, a semi-autonomous truck operated by technology firm Otto cruised on Ohio’s highways. Subsequently, the state announced an investment of $15 million in smart transportation infrastructure.
Responding to recent federal guidelines and industry advancements, House and Senate transportation leaders said that next year they will explore ways to develop policy on autonomous vehicles. The proposals, they’ve indicated, would promote commerce and reduce traffic congestion through the authorization of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle- to-infrastructure technologies.
“The possibilities for our nation’s surface transportation system are endless over the next decade,” Subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said. “Autonomous vehicle technology — and the opportunity it presents to make roads safer and highway travel more efficient — is a huge part of that. But policymakers and legislatures across the country must be ready to deal with the regulatory implications of these advancements.”
Ranking Democrat Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton stressed the committee looked to catch up with innovations across the industry. She also indicated self-driving cars and trucks have the potential of expanding ride-hailing and sharing services, transforming the business model for automakers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued guidelines on autonomous cars this fall that outline state and federal roles managing the technology. NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind told House and Senate lawmakers in November the agency had opted to announce guidance instead of regulations. Doing so, Rosekind explained, would avoid limiting innovation.
Kevin Acklin, Pittsburgh’s chief development officer, appreciated NHTSA’s approach, which allows for cities to weigh in with perspective about the guidelines. Ultimately, Acklin added, boosting infrastructure to accommodate cars and trucks of the future would help industries maximize their contributions.
“We see the potential impact on people,” Acklin said. “This is not about George Jetson technology. This is about how this new technology, which is the way of the future, impacts people’s lives.”
Spear stressed that autonomous trucks and cars will ensure public safety and reduce threats along critical infrastructure. He was speaking Dec. 7 before the Senate Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security Subcommittee.
“Our industry will continue to work with service providers as well as government agencies to improve our cybersecurity posture and make certain that our systems and protocols are never compromised,” Spear told the senators.
He added his organization supports having the Transportation Worker Identification Card, or TWIC, as the standard for the industry when it comes to background checks.
“Adopting a ‘one credential or screening, many uses’ policy would fix this problem. Absent this policy, ATA’s highest security priority will continue to be the multiplicity of background checks and their associated costs and burdens,” Spear added.
Lawmakers continue to advance policy that would authorize the broad use of TWIC. The Defense Department allows truckers transporting freight in and out of appropriate military facilities to rely on TWIC instead of obtaining a department-issued Common Access Card.
