Autonomous

Nontraditional bank lending to trucking companies picked up moderately in the second half of 2016 as fleets sought to survive during a sluggish freight market, according to lenders with exposure in transportation financing.

Uncertainty dominates the outlook for trucking and freight transportation in 2017.

The United States has been on the cusp of connected vehicles that communicate directly with each other and with traffic signs and highway infrastructure since 1999, when a slice of electromagnetic spectrum was reserved for such a purpose by the Federal Communications Commission.

Roadie, an Atlanta-based company which began service in central Ohio earlier this year, connects road-trippers with those who are looking for a way to ship a package, either across town or across the nation.

Truck Alliance Inc., an Uber-type service for trucks known in China as Huochebang, raised about $115 million in a financing round that valued the startup at $1 billion.

Don’t be surprised if the next time you get a package from Amazon that the item arrives in a car rather than in a white Amazon van or a big UPS truck.

Uber Technologies Inc. has reverted to one of its bad-boy habits: ignoring regulators. California Department of Motor Vehicles officials said Dec. 14 that the ride-hailing provider is breaking the law by rolling out self-driving cars in San Francisco without their approval.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Dec. 13 issued a proposed rule offering guidance for the development of vehicle-to-vehicle technologies that would provide advance warning of potentially life-threatening crashes for light vehicles.