“Now, with autonomous vehicles, we need to evolve some of these requirements, since with an autonomous truck there is not going to be somebody who can get out and put warning triangles behind the vehicle,” Farrah said.
“Aurora filed the exemption, and Aurora was part of the first waiver process, but this allows any similarly situated company to use it,” Farrah said.
From 2024 denial to five-year exemption FMCSA denied Aurora and Waymo’s 2023 request for the same relief in December 2024.
Opponents included the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), the Truck Safety Coalition, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, REAL Women in Trucking and many individual truck drivers.
“This is a critical step, because this is one of the issues that has been really problematic for the deployment of autonomous trucks,” he said.