FMCSA Sets Listening Session on Highly Automated Commercial Vehicles

The April 24 session will be available via a webcast. FMCSA wants to get information on the design, development, testing, and deployment of these vehicles, which "hold enormous potential benefits for safety, mobility, and sustainability," according to the agency.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has scheduled an April 24 free public listening session to discuss the design, development, testing, and deployment of highly automated commercial vehicles, or HACVs, which "hold enormous potential benefits for safety, mobility, and sustainability," according to the DOT agency. The session will take place from 9:30 a.m. to noon Eastern time and will be available via a webcast, with details on the webcast to be shared at www.fmcsa.dot.gov at a later date.

It will be part of a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance Workshop taking place at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

The agency's meeting notice cites SAE International's Standard J3016, which includes definitions for vehicle automated driving systems. It describes and defines six levels of driving automation, from Level 0, where the human driver does everything, to Level 5, where the automated system can perform all driving tasks under all conditions that a human driver could perform them.

In the notice, FMCSA says it encourages the development of these advanced safety technologies for use on commercial vehicles "and at the same time, recognizes the need to ensure that testing and operation of these advanced safety systems is conducted in a manner that ensure the highest level of safety for everyone involved -- and, most importantly, for the motoring pubilc."

Interested parties may submit comments via www.regulations.gov, as well -- cite Docket Number FMCSA-2017-0114.