The number of autonomous trucks on the road and the companies deploying them seems to grow by the day.
Guidelines for autonomous vehicles were recently amended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while federal legislation has been proposed to expedite the process.
“The rules of the road need to be updated to fit the realities of the 21st century,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. “Our changes will eliminate redundant requirements and bring us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”
The America Drives Act seeks to preempt state laws pertaining to autonomous commercial vehicles while supporting the deployment and regulation of autonomous vehicles in interstate commerce.
Opponents of this proposal underline safety and other concerns.
“OOIDA supports mandatory testing, safety and crash-reporting requirements that will provide the public with direct and easy access to information about AV performance,” Association President Todd Spencer wrote in comments.
Houston-based Bot Auto, an autonomous trucking company founded in 2023, announced the successful completion of its first “humanless hub-to-hub validation run.”
The route was completed with no one in the cab. Remote assistance was not utilized on this run executed at sunset to test day and night operations.
“This validation run is a meaningful step, but it’s a waypoint, not the destination,” Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder and CEO of Bot Auto, said in a statement. “Success is simple: Autonomy must beat human cost-per-mile, consistently and safely. At Bot Auto, humanless means no human – not in the driver’s seat, not in the back seat and not behind a remote joystick.”
Bot Auto reported that before the test run, it completed end-to-end safety verification, including closed-course autonomous testing.
The truck was equipped with “multiple layers of protection,” designed to maintain intended performance under normal conditions and respond to unexpected events, the company said.
Previously, Bot Auto had conducted fully autonomous commercial operations between Houston and San Antonio with safety drivers in-cab. The company said it plans to continue these operations as humanless commercial cargo runs.
“Our mission is to revolutionize the transportation industry with our autonomous trucks,” Bot Auto said. “By leveraging advanced technology and our extensive experience in the AV industry, we aim to transform goods transportation into the future of sustainable and efficient logistics.” LL
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