All this buzz about autonomous driving technology started many conversations. Recently published in an article by Trucking Info, the Department of Transportation (DOT) holds two public hearings to receive input on the best way to integrate autonomous vehicles.

The first meeting will be held in Washington D.C. on April 8th. The second meeting will be in California, but the date has not been set yet.

In the article,  Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx said:

“The feedback from these meetings will help the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration provide manufacturers with the rules of the road for how we expect automated vehicles to operate safely.”

In addition, NHTSA released a Volpe Center report prepared for DOT.

Overall, it identifies potential barriers and challenges for the certification of automated vehicles using existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

He also advised that NHTSA “continues to take other key steps to support the development of new technologies, including working with local and state leaders on model state policy so that we have some overarching safety principles nationwide, and determining what new regulatory tools and authorities may be needed to meet their safety mission in a time of rapidly changing technology.”

In addition, the Volpe report examines other autonomous vehicle concepts. For example, these include truck platooning, heavy duty driverless delivery vehicles, and riderless delivery motorcycles.