Autonomous

No matter your place on the political spectrum, it is undeniable passage of the Republican-led tax reform measure was a monumental feat. This week we highlight our favorite news items from Capitol Agenda in 2017.

The futuristic appeal of the autonomous vehicles that began operating Dec. 21 on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority test track is the prospect that eventually hundreds of them could be shuttling passengers around downtown.

Self-driving cars may be the future, but relinquishing control of the wheel certainly takes some getting used to. It’s one thing to go (slowly) with the flow on well-marked city streets, for which many self-driving cars were initially developed and tested, but what happens when you throw icy winter road conditions into the mix?

Another fleet of mining trucks will join the growing ranks of machines operating autonomously using Caterpillar Inc. systems in Australia next year, reflecting the company’s push to cement industry partnerships with proprietary technology.

U.S. Route 33 will likely host truck platooning exercises in the future as research at Ohio’s Smart Mobility Corridor continues, according to James Barna, chief engineer and assistant director of transportation policy for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The launch of self-driving vehicle testing at the American Center for Mobility west of Detroit came with something that frequently confounds human drivers in Michigan — snow.

Peloton Technology recently demonstrated its driver-assist truck platooning system on Interstate 96 in Michigan with two Volvo VNL 670 trucks, featuring one following about 60 feet behind the lead truck.

Today, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology is making a future full of self-driving cars increasingly likely, hacking has become a serious potential concern.

2017 was a year of anticipation for the freight transportation industry, leading up to the long-awaited Dec. 18 mandate for broad adoption of electronic logging devices to track hours of service.