Two weeks ago, the State of Nevada granted the first license for an autonomous (self-driving) commercial truck to operate on an open public highway in the United States. It went to Daimler Trucks North America for its Freightliner Inspiration Truck, which is fully certified to meet all U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Based upon a series production Freightliner Cascadia Evolution, the Inspiration is equipped with the company’s Highway Pilot which links together a sophisticated set of camera technology and radar systems with lane stability, collision avoidance, speed control, braking, steering and other monitoring systems, plus computer hardware, to creates a Level 3 autonomous vehicle operating system that can perform safely under a range of highway driving conditions.
As defined by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Level 3 is a limited self-driving automation vehicle.
A big hurdle
There are a number of benefits that can be had by having autonomous commercial trucks on the highway. One of the big hurdles to this is that today, autonomous driving is prohibited by law in the majority of states as the driver needs to be in full control at any given time.
Only Nevada, California, Michigan Florida and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation that permits operation of self-driving vehicles under certain conditions.
Information on legislative and regulatory developments regarding autonomous driving can be found at the Center for Internet and Society.
In my next blog, I’ll discuss the various Levels of vehicle automation.