Aurora Innovation is taking federal safety regulators to court in a case that could have far-reaching implications for self-driving truck companies operating in a regulatory environment designed around humans.
The fight centers around the rather commonplace practice of placing physical warning triangles around semi trucks stopped along highways. The court denied Aurora’s request to be exempt from that safety requirement. Aurora, which plans to launch a fully autonomous commercial trucking operation in April, has turned to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to push regulators to green-light its exemption.
The move highlights a longstanding tension between autonomous vehicle companies seeking to commercialize their technology and safety standards designed for humans.
Here’s what happens in a world where humans drive trucks: Truck drivers activate their hazards and have 10 minutes to put out 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 ahead of the truck or 100 feet behind the truck but off-center. The driver might adjust those positions if the truck is pulled over on a curve or a blind spot.
In a world where AI drives trucks, there’s nobody around to put out the warning lights. The AV industry, led by Aurora Innovation and Waymo, submitted a request in January 2023 that would allow them and other AV companies to mount flashing warning beacons on the cab of the truck instead.
(Note: Waymo submitted the request with Aurora back when it still had an active autonomous trucking unit. Waymo shifted focus away from self-driving trucks in June 2023, and isn’t as active in this fight.)
Almost two years later, the Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration 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 referenced findings from Aurora and Waymo’s own limited studies, which show their proposed beacons actually performed worse than warning triangles in several key scenarios, including when the truck was stopped at a curve.
The FMCSA also suggested that cab-mounted beacons have their other shortcomings, namely that drivers might see the rear of a stopped truck before they see the beacons.
AV industry stakeholders, including the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association and Aurora, called the agency’s 52-year-old safety requirements outdated. Melissa Wade, senior director of government relations, noted that the FMCSA hasn’t provided data that supports its safety claims around physical triangles. She also said the agency didn’t provide guidance for what they would like to see in an AV-friendly substitute for safety triangles.
The request was supported by other AV companies like Waabi and Kodiak Robotics, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Consumer Technology Association, among others. It was opposed by organizations like the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the Transport Workers Union of America, and the Truck Safety Coalition.
The scuffle around warning devices and where and how they get placed is one of several regulatory hurdles that autonomous vehicle companies must jump in order to remain compliant with federal safety standards, many of which are designed for manual human controls. For example, today, AV companies need to request an exemption to deploy and mass produce vehicles built without things like steering wheels or pedals, though Tesla CEO Elon Musk has urged the incoming Trump administration to do away with those rules as he hopes to deploy a large fleet of such robotaxis in the coming years.
Aurora also appears hopeful that the Trump administration will be more favorable to the AV industry. At least, that’s the sentiment portrayed in a recent blog post from Aurora President Ossa Fisher that nods to the incoming “hardworking, passionate transportation leaders ready to support innovation and save lives.”
Angie Griffin, a trucker of 17 years who hosts a YouTube channel with her husband about the lifestyle of trucking, told TechCrunch she thinks the regulations on the distance needed between safety triangles is appropriate because “vehicles are passing and coming at you at such a rate of speed that the earliest detection is better.”
She said that to accommodate self-driving trucks, her ideal solution would feature warning lights on the trailer of the truck, not just on the cab.
Aurora, like other AV players, doesn’t have its own trailers; it operates via hand-offs of customer trailers, which is standard in the trucking industry. Requiring carrier customers to upfit their trailers with warning beacons would throw a wrench in AV companies’ plans to slot into the current system with minimal disruption, but it could be necessary from a safety standpoint.
“You would be surprised, especially in a place like Texas, where it’s pitch 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’re passing it,” Griffin said. “If you hit the back end of a semi, you’re probably not surviving, even if you’re in another semi. So why take the chance?”
