The Department of Transportation has approved a five-year, NAM-supported exemption for Aurora and other autonomous trucking companies from regulations that require drivers to place warning signals around stopped trucks (Reuters, subscription).
Companies seeking to use the waiver must notify the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and report any crashes in which warning beacons were activated or should have been activated.
“The exemption request presents a practical opportunity to improve safety while accommodating the operational realities of autonomous commercial vehicles,” the NAM said in May.
“The proposed warning beacons … offer a reasonable alternative [to warning triangles] that provides approaching motorists with clear and immediate visibility of a stopped vehicle while reducing the need for unnecessary roadside exposure.”
Citing studies from Aurora and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, the NAM said warning beacons have been shown to perform similarly to traditional triangles and fusees.