FMCSA says no to driverless trucking companies who wanted exemption from reflective triangles rule for stopped CMVs

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has opted to deny a request for regulation exemption from a pair of leading autonomous trucking companies.

In a Notice to be published in the Federal Register on December 27, the FMCSA announced its decision to deny a request for exemption coming from driverless trucking companies Waymo and Aurora.

The companies asked FMCSA for relief from regulations related to requirements to place specific types of warning devices (namely 3 bidirectional emergency reflective triangles, or at least 6 fusees or 3 liquid-burning flares) at prescribed locations around commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) stopped on the traveled portion or shoulder of a highway for any cause other than necessary traffic stops and requirements that lamps on CMVs be steady burning.

Waymo and Aurora stated that the warning devices requirements listed in 49 CFR 392.22(b) were “not feasible for autonomous CMVs without a human on board.”

The companies asked the FMCSA for permission to instead use “Cab-Mounted Warning Beacons” when the CMV is operated by a Level 4 Automated Driving System (ADS) either without a human on board or with a human on board when testing the warning beacons.

The FMCSA ultimately opted to deny the rule exemption request because the companies “[did] not demonstrate that granting the exemption will likely achieve a level of safety that is equivalent to, or greater than, the level of safety that would be achieved absent the exemption.”

Specifically, the agency said that Waymo and Aurora did not provide enough details about the
Cab-Mounted Warning Beacons, and they failed to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety for Cab-Mounted Warning Beacons.

“… Should Applicants (or future applicants) provide sufficient details about proposed alternative warning devices, FMCSA notes that industry-wide exemptions are not the norm and FMCSA grants them only on a very limited basis. Applicants present little data on the effect such a broad exemption would have on overall safety, particularly considering the unknown group of autonomous CMV operators at issue, the unknown fleet sizes, and potential differences among them in implementation and operations,” authorities concluded.