U.S. Legislative Issues

Lawmakers Push for Driverless Test Sites Funding

A bipartisan group of Senate and House lawmakers is urging the Trump Administration to include $200 million for the development of 10 testing grounds for autonomous and connected vehicles recently approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in its upcoming budget plan.

Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) sent a March 2 letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney asking that he include the funds in the White House budget request expected to be sent to Congress later this month.

Earlier this year, DOT designated 10 "proving grounds" across the country to be used for the safe testing and deployment of autonomous and connected vehicles. These facilities were specifically designed to promote the sharing of safety and innovation practices as they are developed. This is critical given that most of the corporate-sponsored research underway is done in isolation, with little or no data-sharing between competing firms.

In their letter, the lawmakers stressed that "thorough testing" begin quickly in order to encourage both innovation and public trust in the rapidly expanding autonomous vehicle industry. "DOT should be directed to use such funds to support the development of these ten proving grounds and to promote the creation and sharing of best practices for safely conducting testing and operations, which will accelerate the pace of safe deployment," the lawmakers wrote. They also noted that $200 million was requested for autonomous vehicle research as part of former President Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget proposal.

Updated FMCSA Electronic Logging Device FAQ Available

On February 15, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued an updated Electronic Logging Device (ELD) frequently asked questions (FAQ), available here. The updated questions identify manufacturers' and motor carriers' responsibilities in regard to the ELD rule.

Congress directed FMCSA to develop the rule mandating the use of ELDs back in 2012 as part of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) highway funding bill. The final rule was published by the agency in December 2015. In its simplest form, an ELD is used to electronically record a driver’s Record of Duty Status (RODS), which replaces the paper logbook some drivers currently use to record their compliance with hours-of-service (HOS) requirements. Fleets have until December 2017 to implement certified ELDs to record HOS. Fleets already equipped with electronic logging technology will have until December 2019 to ensure compliance with the published specifications.

FMCSA Confirms HOS Restart Restrictions Will Remain Suspended

On March 9, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) announced that provisions of its 2013 hours-of-service (HOS) restart rule -- which have been suspended since December 2014 -- would remain suspended. The announcement came amid the completion of a federally mandated study in which the agency failed to demonstrate conclusively that the provisions in the 2013 regulations calling for a 34-hour restart with a weekly limit and two consecutive 1 AM-to-5 AM rest periods provided "a greater net benefit for the operational, safety, health and fatigue impacts" on drivers.

To investigate the safety implications of the provisions, the FMCSA conducted a 5-month study of more than 200 commercial vehicle drivers. Participating drivers worked their normal schedules and performed their normal duties, but half followed the restart restrictions, while the other half followed the 34-hour restart rule without additional restrictions. The FMCSA compared the work schedules of the two groups and looked for differences in the rate of crashes, near-crashes, fatigue, and other safety-related outcomes.

FMCSA said the study showed no significant difference in safety-critical events per hundred hours of driving using the pre-2013 one-day restart versus those using the two-night restart provision. Further, the results of the study indicated that requiring drivers to include the two 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM periods and limiting the restart provision to once per week also failed to lead to improvements in safety. Drivers who followed the 34-hour restart rule without additional restrictions did not experience any significant differences in the number of safety-critical events, work hours per day, levels of fatigue, or stress levels.

The study did, however, affirm the importance of the 34-hour off-duty periods. According to the FMCSA, drivers slept over two hours more per day during the restart periods as compared to days they were on duty.