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As billions go into building driverless everything — from cars to buses and airplanes — France is taking a cheaper shortcut to autonomous transport.

Self-driving cars virtually have made every mistake imaginable inside the office of Applied Intuition. But that's a good thing, according to the autonomous technology company.

For all of the hysteria pundits have heaped on Washington in recent weeks, the current state of affairs really isn't abnormal. Here's a look ahead to the week for trucking on Capitol Hill.

WASHINGTON — The small role Congress currently plays in policy for autonomous vehicle technology could eventually slow, or impede, progress for states and firms testing such systems, a key House transportation authorizer warned on Sept. 5.

An “incursion” nine months ago that shut down the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners still is causing delays in registering new examiners and backlogs for medical examiners to upload truck driver examinations, officials said.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief Ray Martinez will be a keynote speaker at American Trucking Associations’ conference next month to provide an update on new rules covering the industry.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah driver who slammed her Tesla into a stopped firetruck at a red light earlier this year while using the vehicle’s semi-autonomous function has sued the company, saying salespeople told her the car would stop on its own in Autopilot mode if something were in its path.

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems announced the next generation of both its Wingman Fusion advanced driver assistance system and its BlindSpotter side object detection system.

While intermodal may be playing catch-up in the real-time freight visibility race, the consensus among industry watchers is that the gap is closing — fast. You can thank the Internet of Things revolution and the emergence of “in the cloud” software and database platforms.

Google’s Waymo, Uber and carmakers GM and Mercedes-Benz are among the companies working to put driverless vehicles in showrooms. That competition also should help lower prices that can reach $75,000 apiece for the sensors that scan a car’s surrounding environment so it knows how to drive itself.