U.S. DOT Tries to Slam the Brakes on Autonomous Trucking
This Week in The Autonomy Economy is presented by Koop Insurance, a specialist insurance provider focused on robotics and autonomous vehicles.
This Week in The Autonomy Economy, The Road to Autonomy Index returned 2.52%, The United States Department of Transportation has tried to slam the brakes on autonomous trucking, Waymo is one step closer to being able to operate at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and DARPA successfully completed refueling of an unmanned surface vessel at sea.
Today marks 22 days until President-Elect Trump is sworn in as the 47th President of The United States of America. Meaning, there are still 22 more days of potential damage that the outgoing Biden Administration can do to slow down the adoption of autonomous vehicles and trucks, all while derailing the emerging autonomy economy.
The Biden Administration’s approach to derailing the autonomy economy over the last two weeks has been both deliberate and methodical. Nothing drains the cheer and joy of the holiday season more than unelected bureaucrats unexpectedly putting lumps of coal in stockings of job creators who are creating the future of the U.S. economy.
On December 20th, NHTSA (U.S. DOT) rolled out AV STEP (a classic example of government overreach) and on December 26th, FMCSA (U.S. DOT) denied Waymo and Aurora’s warning triangle exemption after sitting on it for almost two years (a classic example of government bureaucratic inertia).
Why sit on something for two years and then before you leave office in a little over 20 days, you deny something of significant importance to the future of the U.S. economy? Politics. Plain and simple. This is a political maneuver and a late Christmas gift to those special interests that supported President Biden throughout his term in office.
In the midst of uncertainty, hope always finds its place. That place this time is the new incoming-Trump Administration. The incoming-Trump Administration fundamentally believes in an America First policy agenda. Removing the shackles of AV STEP and granting both Waymo and Aurora the warning triangle exemption, will enable both autonomous vehicles and autonomous trucks to scale in America, while creating new high-paying jobs. This is America First.
By putting the overreaching data requirements in AV STEP and denying the warning triangle exception for both Waymo and Aurora, the Biden Administration is putting America Last, while they put China First.
Policies that discourage and try to ban autonomous vehicles and autonomous trucks in America are pro-China polices. They are China First policies that will help China succeed on the global stage, while America suffers economically. If policy decisions such as these continue, China will become the world’s largest exporter of autonomy—not America.
Hasn’t America learned this lesson time and time again? America used to lead on textiles, steel, manufacturing and the production of semiconductors. Does America want to lose its leadership position in autonomous vehicles and autonomous trucks? Does America want to let history once again unfortunately repeat itself? It looks that way now.
That will all hopefully change on January 20, 2025 at 12:01pm, as a new dawn is upon the autonomous vehicle and truck industries. What happens when President-elect Trump assumes office is yet to be determined, but there is a glimmer of hope that President Trump’s proposed America First policy agenda will unleash the full potential of autonomy in America.
Unshackle the autonomous vehicle and truck industries from special interest policies and the Trump Administration will usher in the Autonomy Economy. The Autonomy Economy will create millions of new high-paying jobs, while ensuring that America not only remains competitive on autonomy, but that America leads on autonomy. When America leads, the world leads. Now is the time to step up and build a bright future for generations to come.
A Note of Gratitude
May you have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve with your friends and loved ones. From all of us at The Road to Autonomy, Happy New Year and thank you very very much for subscribing to and reading This Week in The Autonomy Economy each and every week!
Thank you Sergey Litvinenko and the team at Koop for being our wonderful presenting sponsor! It means a lot to us! This year we wrote over 126,700 words and grew over 672%! Here is a big cheers to a great 2025!
2025 will be a GREAT year for autonomy. Collectively we will MAKE AUTONOMY GREAT. To celebrate this moment in history, we created MAKE AUTONOMY GREAT Hats. If you are interested, you can purchase one here.
Aurora Innovation and Waymo parent Alphabet are The Road to Autonomy Index component companies
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What’s Moving the Markets
U.S. DOT Tries To Slam the Brakes on Autonomous Trucking
In another let’s burn the house down on the way out of office maneuver, The Biden Administration continues to undermine the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicles and trucks.
First it was the requirement to require extremely detailed data as part of AV STEP (December 20, 2024), and now it’s a let’s try and stop autonomous trucking from scaling by denying the warning triangle exemption on December 26, 2024 submitted by Waymo and Aurora almost two years ago.
With only 22 days left until President-Elect Trump is sworn into office, how much more damage will the Biden Administration continue to try and inflict on the autonomous vehicle and truck industries? It is a sad day in America when unelected bureaucrats are putting their political ideology above those of their fellow citizens and the U.S. economy.
Autonomy is good for the economy. Autonomy will create jobs, despite all of the roadblocks that the out-going Biden Administration is throwing up on their way out the door, autonomy will thrive in America.
Even though the Biden Administration denied the warning triangle exemption, autonomous trucks can still legally operate in select states and they will scale in 2025 fully autonomously (with no driver in the cab).
The big difference now is that autonomous trucks will have to be followed by a chase vehicle with warning triangles. So in the event of an autonomous truck having to pull over, a human can get out of the chase vehicle and put the warning triangles out per the (outdated) regulation.
There are hopes that when President-Elect Trump assumes office, autonomy will become a national priority and the roadblocks that the Biden Administration put in place will unravel and be replaced with policies and regulations that benefit the U.S. economy and put America First.
Granting the warning triangle expectation is an America First Policy. Denying it is a China First Policy.
Our take: The Biden Administration’s true colors on autonomy are shining brightly now that his term in office is coming to an end.
Aurora Innovation and Waymo parent Alphabet are The Road to Autonomy Index component companies
Aurora is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARDin the autonomous trucks category.
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Piquing Our Interest
Waymo is One Step Closer to Offering Service at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) The City and County of San Francisco through the San Francisco Airport Commission has proposed a process to approve a permit allowing autonomous vehicle companies (2 vehicles) to map the roads at San Francisco International Airport.
Scaling Autonomous Shuttles at Airports By late 2025, the Hong Kong Airport (HKG) will begin to integrate autonomous shuttles into passenger operations.
China Implements Robotaxi Framework In an effort to coordinate the development and commercialization of robotaxis, four districts in China have agreed to “mutually” recognize robotaxis.
The Growth of L3? Is Level 3 going to be a growth market? We are uncertain as Level 3 in our opinion ventures into the land of uncertainty as it relates to liability. But, Goldman Sachs is predicting by 2040, 90% of all new vehicle sales in China will be Level 3 vehicles. In the United States the firm expects this number to be 65%. We remain skeptical.
Tesla FSD 13.2.2 Goes Wide Release On Christmas Eve, Tesla FSD 13.2.2 went wide release to HW4 vehicles. In our first drives with Tesla FSD 13.2.2, we can confirm that FSD 13 lives up to the hype. It’s only a matter of time until Tesla “cracks” full self-driving.
📰 Before these stories were featured here, they were available on Autonomy Times. Visit Autonomy Times today to stay up-to-date on the latest news and developments shaping the autonomy economy.
Social Buzz
Automated Refueling at Sea
On December 19th, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) successfully completed a refueling of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) at sea.
Our take: The future of the Navy and the United States Military is autonomous. What DARPA successfully demonstrated at sea is one of the first steps towards a fully-autonomous Naval fleet.
2,000+ Waymo Miles in 2024
Jared Friedman, Group Partner, Y Combinator rode over 2,000 miles in Waymo this year. An impressive feat to say the least. Waymo confirmed to Business Insider that Mr. Friedman is in the Top 1% of all Waymo riders.
Our take: At an average fare of $15 a ride, Mr. Friedman would have spent $7,755 on Waymo rides in 2024. Averaging out to $646.25 a month.
Waymo parent Alphabet is a The Road to Autonomy Index component company
Waymo is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the autonomous vehicle category.
The Road to Autonomy Index® / Weekly Performance
The Road to Autonomy Index® is a high-definition lens into the emerging world of autonomous vehicles. It is the world’s first and only pure-play index designed to measure the performance of the autonomous vehicle/truck market.
For the week of December 23rd, The Road to Autonomy Index returned 2.52%, the S&P 500 returned 0.67% and the NASDAQ 100 returned 0.86%. The Road to Autonomy Index outperformed the S&P 500 by 1.85% and outperformed the NASDAQ 100 by 1.66%.
Year to Date (YTD), The Road to Autonomy Index has returned 24.03%
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