{"id":6529,"date":"2023-04-12T06:28:33","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T06:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/union-opposes-driverless-trucks\/"},"modified":"2023-04-12T23:40:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T23:40:05","slug":"us-union-opposes-driverless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-union-opposes-driverless\/","title":{"rendered":"US union opposes driverless trucks waiver for Waymo, Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A major U.S. transport union on Tuesday opposed a request by Alphabet Inc&#8217;s  self-driving unit Waymo and autonomous driving technology company Aurora Innovation Inc for an exemption from rules on warning devices for large semi-trucks, citing safety issues.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said last month it received a joint application from Waymo and Aurora seeking a five-year exemption from rules that require drivers to place reflective triangles or a flare around a stopped truck to alert other drivers and help prevent a crash. <\/p>\n<p>Aurora and Waymo instead want to use warning beacons mounted on the truck cab to avoid needing human drivers.<\/p>\n<p>The Transport Workers Union of America said the petition is &#8220;inappropriate, represents an overreach and a misuse of the waiver and exemption process, and would significantly diminish the safety of our roads. It should be rejected in the strongest possible terms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It urged the safety board to ensure &#8220;rigorous oversight and standards&#8221; before widespread deployment of such new technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Waymo and Aurora say that without an exemption driverless trucks would need a human on board, which would &#8220;undermine the efficiency potential of autonomous CMVs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Waymo responded that the &#8220;exemption we put forward would permit compliant autonomous trucking operations while maintaining a high standard of safety.&#8221; Aurora declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Both told FMCSA it is possible to achieve the safety purpose of the warning device by using forward- and rearward-facing amber flashing lights mounted on the cab.    <\/p>\n<p>In the joint filing, Aurora said it maintains 28 Class 8 self-driving trucks that run on public roads, primarily in Texas, while Waymo listed 48 Class 8 trucks. Both fleets have human operators who, when necessary, can drive the vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>Legislation to speed the deployment of self-driving vehicles and ease hurdles has been stalled for more than five years in Congress. A bill to advance self-driving cars approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017 applied to vehicles under 10,000 pounds, but not large commercial trucks.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by Deepa Babington and Richard Chang)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-union-opposes-driverless\/file-photo-waymo-rider-only-robotaxi-test-ride-in-san-francisco\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0N6-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0N6-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A major U.S. transport union on Tuesday opposed a request by Alphabet Inc&#8217;s self-driving unit Waymo and autonomous driving technology company Aurora Innovation Inc for an exemption from rules on warning devices for large semi-trucks, citing safety issues. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said last month it received a joint application [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-6529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3A0N6-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6529"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8304,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6529\/revisions\/8304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}