Aurora Innovations recently took big steps forward with its driverless trucking operations by expanding its routes and driving window.
Specifically, the Pittsburgh-based company recently opened a new Phoenix terminal and started operating at night. Aurora, which deployed its first driverless run in April, had been limited to daytime hauls between Dallas and Houston.
Although the announcement signals progress for the autonomous trucking industry, significant opposition, regulatory hurdles and safety concerns remain.
Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, used some of his testimony at a recent Senate subcommittee hearing to voice concerns about autonomous vehicles.
“It is incomprehensible that in the same universe in which the federal government regulates the size of hazard material placards down to a millimeter, autonomous vehicles are permitted to freely roam the country without oversight,” O’Brien wrote in his submitted testimony. “Allowing the unfettered and unregulated operation of autonomous vehicles – ultimately seeking to replace human drivers with robots – is unequivocally a threat to safety on our roadways and the existence of good jobs in the trucking industry.”
Aurora originally deployed its operations with no one in the driver’s seat. Citing a request from Paccar, however, Aurora announced on May 16 that it was putting a human back in the driver’s seat. Curiously, though, Aurora said that person would have no role in driving the truck, and a spokesperson indicated to Land Line that he or she would not need a CDL.
O’Brien raised concerns that driverless trucking companies will eventually attempt to operate without a human on board.
“Automation is a real threat to American jobs,” he said at the hearing. “And we feel strongly that the biggest threat to the trucking industry is autonomous commercial vehicles not requiring human operators … If we replaced 3.5 million drivers, where do they go and what do they do? And more importantly, it’s a public safety issue.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and Truck Safety Coalition have also spoken out about the safety risks posed by driverless trucks and cars.
“While autonomous vehicles might improve safety under certain conditions, they create new risks with dangerous outcomes,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer wrote in comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in March. “Unfortunately, mostly voluntary federal reporting requirements leave truckers and the general public in the dark about the safety and reliability of autonomous technologies. OOIDA has advocated for autonomous vehicle standards that are based on documented research and testing data. OOIDA supports mandatory testing, safety and crash-reporting requirements that will provide the public with direct and easy access to information about autonomous vehicle performance.”
In its comments to NHTSA, the Truck Safety Coalition said that the public doesn’t feel safe.
“Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety commissioned a public opinion poll on the topic of driverless cars and trucks, and nearly nine out of 10 respondents reported being ‘deeply troubled’ by the prospect of sharing the road with these vehicles,” the Truck Safety Coalition wrote. “The burden is on autonomous driving system manufacturers and interested carriers to prove to the public and DOT that this technology can work safely at scale.” LL
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