After months of industry lobbying, House lawmakers inserted a provision into a must-pass transportation funding bill that would block states’ from setting safety standards for self-driving trucks, buses, and other commercial vehicles — despite mounting calls for tougher safeguards.
On Sunday, House lawmakers announced a deal on a congressional funding package for surface transportation and highways, which would determine policy and spending for the country’s roads, bridges, trains, and highways for the next five years.
Buried in the 1,000-page legislation was a provision that would grant a longtime wish of the autonomous vehicle industry: Override state autonomous commercial vehicle regulations and instead install a light-touch national framework allowing nearly unrestricted expansion of self-driving trucks across the nation’s highways and roads.