DOT moves to clear the road for self-driving trucks

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is beginning work to iron out challenges to an eventual nation-wide rollout of automated vehicles (AVs), including commercial trucks.

In a Request for Information (RFI) published on Friday, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R) seeks feedback over the next 60 days from the trucking industry, technology developers, operators of automated driver system (ADS) vehicle fleets, transportation agencies and researchers on the data and research needed to support full deployment.

“OST-R intends to enhance the current understanding of the technical, data, and resource needs to improve the ability of software-driven AV systems to operate and interact with other road users and infrastructure safely and efficiently at scale on roadways across varied U.S. geographies and operational design domains,” the office stated in the announcement.

“This understanding will help OST-R develop a research agenda to facilitate nationwide AV deployment.”

The office emphasized the RFI will not cover safety topics over which DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration already have regulatory jurisdiction.

DOT began the groundwork towards autonomous trucks during the first Trump administration, culminating in an AV “Comprehensive Plan” published just days before the administration left Washington in 2021. Little progress was made during the Biden administration on finalizing a regulatory framework.

Pressure on AV deployment is coming from Capitol Hill as well, with legislation introduced last month that would codify into law FMCSA’s interpretation that safety regulations don’t require a human driver, and would exempt fully autonomous trucks from human-specific requirements such as hours of service and drug testing.

Specific information required

The ROI lists six areas for which DOT seeks answers to specific questions, including:

Data Standards and Integration

What additional research is needed to improve understanding of operational needs related to automated fleet operations (including both commercial motor vehicles and non-CMV fleets such as ride hailing), e.g. transcontinental automated truck trips, including fueling, inspection, emergency maintenance and other services.
What interoperable digital data would be valuable in supporting these services for automated fleets?
What are the near-term infrastructure-related data needs for deployment of AVs, including roadway operations, maintenance, and planning?
Which data needs require standardized information exchange, and how should this occur?

Edge-case characteristics identification

What research is needed to understand the data capture and support for longitudinal tracking of AV impacts on transportation system operations across varied roadway environments?

Supervision dynamics and human interaction

What methods can incentivize AV operator transparency while protecting proprietary information?
What research is needed to optimize human-machine interfaces for diverse user groups, including emergency responders, pedestrians, cyclists, other human drivers and passengers, to enhance safety, accessibility, and trust in mixed traffic environments?

Evidence-based evaluation

What research is needed to support safe, transparent, and equitable nationwide evidence-based evaluation of AV operational impacts on the transportation system?

Transparency and building public understanding

What statistical methods are suitable to adequately capture emerging anomalous behavior or rare-event factors associated with AV impacts or interactions on the transportation system?
What areas and resolution of nationwide mapping is required or would be used for roadways, intersections, bridges, tunnels, interchanges, right of ways, and/or parking areas, be they public, private, paved, unpaved or otherwise?
Would your company use the map data if it was at no cost?
If there was a charge for the map data, what is the reasonable estimated charge for the map data, and would your company be willing to pay this reasonable estimated charge?

Interactions with other road users and the transportation system

What research is needed to develop new or improved standardized methods to evaluate vehicle behavior consistency (e.g., car following, lane changing, pedestrian/cyclist detection) across diverse environments (e.g., rain, fog, snow, work zones, potholes), interactions (e.g., unpredictable human drivers, emergency vehicles), and situations (e.g., sensor failure, loss of cellular network, mechanical failures) when ADS-equipped vehicles are involved?