Autonomous truck companies plan a major expansion this year to deliver your packages and food, speeding well ahead of federal safety regulationsPALMER, Tex. — Perched in the cab of a 35,000-pound semi-truck lumbering south on Interstate 45, AJ Jenkins watched the road while the big rig’s steering wheel slid through his hands. Jenkins was in the driver’s seat, but he wasn’t driving. The gigantic 18-wheeler was guiding itself.
Alarmed by the slow pace of federal regulation, labor and safety advocates are pushing legislation in several states to ban driverless trucks outright. So far, the effort has been unsuccessful. The California legislature approved a measure last year that would have required human operators in all autonomous trucks, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, calling it “unnecessary” in light of state regulations that already ban autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds.
Driverless passenger cars have caused chaos in cities like San Francisco, including one horrific accident last year when a robotaxi hit a jaywalking pedestrian and dragged her about 20 feet. The potential for catastrophe is even greater with massive autonomous trucks, critics say. Nat Beuse, Aurora’s chief safety officer, said the self-driving truck industry has been “methodical” in deploying its technology, adopting strict safety standards, including how the trucks respond to various system failures. Beuse said the company has learned from the mistakes of other autonomous vehicle companies, including General Motors-owned Cruise, which recalled its entire driverless fleet after the San Francisco crash.
The average driver would find it tough to spot one of Aurora’s trucks, which bear only a small rear-facing sign that reads “AUTONOMOUS TEST VEHICLE.” companies have been involved in a handful of traffic incidents, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration . Still, autonomous trucks will make highways safer, those working on the technology say. According to the latest federal data, 5,788 people were killed in crashes involving a large truck in 2021, representing 13 percent of traffic deaths that year.As profit-driven companies race toward deployment, the federal government has been slow to grapple with the implications of the new technology. The U.S.