autonomous News Updates

Teams of researchers based at three state universities will spend the next three years developing ways to help North Carolina prepare for autonomous vehicles and other new transportation technologies.

The introduction of self-driving truck prototypes over the past five years has fueled an ongoing conversation about how this emerging technology will change the freight transportation industry in the decades ahead.

Krystian Gebis did not have to keep his hands on the wheel when he operated a specially modified Peterbilt semi truck along a test track last month. The steering wheel turned by itself.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s road-safety regulator is under fire again for what critics call lax oversight of tests involving autonomous vehicles.

WASHINGTON — Long-awaited legislation that would set a federal regulatory framework for automated vehicles is being drafted by transportation leaders in Congress, the chairman of the Senate panel with jurisdiction over freight affairs confirmed Nov. 20.

DALLAS — Infrastructure required for autonomous and electric vehicles will follow demand for such products, according to technology experts.

The absence of autonomous vehicles legislation before congressional committees has not discouraged industry stakeholders from continuing to insist lawmakers establish a set of federal policies for the technology.

No discussion of the future of the trucking industry is complete without considering the advance of automated driving technology, and how it might support the movement of freight in the years and decades ahead.

After several years of fanfare and debate over when and how self-driving commercial vehicles would reach the market, early forms of this technology are beginning to become an option in new trucks.

Over the past year, startups working to commercialize highly auto­mated heavy-duty trucks competed for more capital and engineers, and each pushed deeper into systems development.