Aurora Innovation is taking federal safety regulators to court in a case which could have far-reaching implications for self-driving truck companies operating in a regulatory environment designed around humans.
The fight centers around the rather common practice of placing physical warning triangles around semi-trucks stopped along highways. The court denied Aurora’s request to be exempt from this security requirement. Aurora, which plans to launch a fully autonomous commercial trucking business in April, has turned to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to press regulators to greenlight its exemption.
The move underscores a long-standing tension between autonomous vehicle companies seeking to commercialize technology and safety standards designed for humans.
Here’s what happens in a world where people drive trucks: Truck drivers turn on their hazards and have 10 minutes to put up reflective safety triangles as a warning to other road users. The first triangle goes 10 feet behind the truck facing oncoming traffic. The second goes 100 feet behind the truck. And the third goes 100 feet in front of the truck or 100 feet behind the truck but off center. The driver can adjust these positions if the truck pulls into a corner or blind spot.
In a world where AI drives trucks, there’s no one around to turn off the warning lights. The AV industry, led by Aurora Innovation and Waymo, filed a request in January 2023 that would allow them and other AV companies to install flashing warning lights in the truck cab instead.
(Note: Waymo filed the request with Aurora back when it still had an active autonomous truck unit. Waymo shifted its focus from autonomous trucks in June 2023 and is not as active in this race.)
Almost two years later, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) denied the application, stating that the solution does not provide an equal or greater level of safety than the existing requirement. In its denial, the agency cited findings from limited studies by Aurora and Waymo that show their proposed headlights actually performed worse than warning triangles in several key scenarios, including when the truck stops on a curve.
FMCSA also suggested that cab-mounted headlights have other disadvantages, namely that drivers may see the rear of a stopped truck before seeing the headlights.
AV industry stakeholders, including the Autonomy Vehicle Industry Association and Aurora, called the agency’s 52-year-old safety requirements outdated. Melissa Wade, senior director of government relations, noted that FMCSA has not provided data to support its claims of safety around natural triangles. He also said the agency has not provided guidance on what they would like to see in an AV-friendly replacement for safety triangles.
The request was supported by other AV companies such as Waabi and Kodiak Robotics, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Consumer Technology Association, among others. It was opposed by organizations such as the Association of Independent Driver Owner-Operators, the Transportation Workers Union of America and the Truck Safety Coalition.
The conflict over warning devices and where and how they are placed is one of several regulatory hurdles autonomous vehicle companies must jump to stay compliant with federal safety standards, many of which are designed for manual human control. For example, today, AV companies must request an exemption to develop and mass-produce vehicles built without steering wheels or pedals, though Tesla CEO Elon Musk has urged the incoming Trump administration to scrap those rules as he hopes to deploy a large fleet of such robotics in the coming years.
Aurora also seems optimistic that the Trump administration will be more favorable to the AV industry. At least, that’s the sentiment portrayed in recent blog post from Aurora President Ossa Fisher who nods to the upcoming “hard-working, passionate transportation leaders, ready to support innovation and save lives.”
Angie Griffin, a 17-year-old trucker who hosts a YouTube channel with her husband about the trucking lifestyle, she told TechCrunch that she believes regulations on the distance required between safety triangles are appropriate because “vehicles are passing and coming at you at such a rate of speed that the timely detection is better’.
She said that to accommodate autonomous trucks, her ideal solution would have warning lights on the truck’s trailer, not just the cab.
Aurora, like other AV players, does not have its own trailers. It works by delivering customer trailers, which is standard in the trucking industry. Requiring the carrier’s customers to equip their trailers with warning beacons would throw a wrench into AV companies’ plans to get into the current system with minimal disruption, but could be necessary from a safety perspective.
“You’d be surprised, especially in a place like Texas, where it’s very dark, there’s no ambient light, there’s no light pollution, in the middle of the desert, how much a 53-foot trailer can hide on the shoulder, and you never see it until you pass it,” said o Griffin. “If you hit the back of a semi, you’re probably not going to survive, even if you’re in another semi. So why should I take the chance?’
