TheTrucker.com

Michigan House passes platooning bill to shorten space between trucks

Reading Time: 2 minutes

By ALICE YIN, The Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. — Self-driving trucks would be allowed shorter distances between vehicles under legislation that the Michigan House passed Tuesday.

Lawmakers voted 64-44 for a bill that would provide an exemption to Michigan’s requirement that trucks maintain sufficient space behind another truck, as long as the vehicle is part of an electronically linked group of self-driving trucks known as a platoon.

The legislation, which heads to the Senate, would not affect an already existing requirement that platoons accommodate other cars wishing to change lanes or exit the highway.

Bill sponsor Rep. Michael Webber, R-Rochester Hills, said the proposal complements Michigan’s 2016 package legalizing platoons as part of a set of pioneering self-driving vehicle laws. The laws allowed smart commercial trucks on public roads so long as they operate in unison at coordinated speeds and state agencies do not object. They also approved self-driving cars without human supervision.

“I see no real downside to it,” Webber said. “We have to have our laws keep up with this technology if we want to be at the forefront.”

Webber said he envisions platooning will arrive in Michigan a lot sooner than driverless commercial vehicles and believes Tuesday’s bill would optimize the practice, as platooning trucks work best when closely following each other. The change, which applies to two-lane highways, does not give him safety concerns, he said.

“I envision this mostly with semi-trucks and probably doing it more when they’re doing stuff late at night,” he said. “Obviously it’s not going to be rush hour traffic in the city of Detroit.”

Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the bill, citing concerns with what they see as a lack of research on the safety of self-driving technology. Michigan Teamsters, a labor union representing truckers, also opposed the legislation.

In March, the first pedestrian death from a self-driving vehicle occurred in suburban Phoenix from an autonomous Uber SUV.

 

 

 

The Associated Press Logo

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. The Trucker Media Group is subscriber of The Associated Press has been granted the license to use this content on TheTrucker.com and The Trucker newspaper in accordance with its Content License Agreement with The Associated Press.

Avatar for The Associated Press
The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. The Trucker Media Group is subscriber of The Associated Press has been granted the license to use this content on TheTrucker.com and The Trucker newspaper in accordance with its Content License Agreement with The Associated Press.
For over 30 years, the objective of The Trucker editorial team has been to produce content focused on truck drivers that is relevant, objective and engaging. After reading this article, feel free to leave a comment about this article or the topics covered in this article for the author or the other readers to enjoy. Let them know what you think! We always enjoy hearing from our readers.

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE