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WASHINGTON – On a unanimous voice vote, a Senate committee approved legislation Oct. 4 that authorizes self-driving car makers to sell as many as 80,000 vehicles a year within three years that would be exempt from current safety standards as manufacturers develop technology for autonomous vehicles.

The idea of highways being filled with self-driving cars may be alluring, but it has highway safety experts raising numerous questions about common contemporary issues like drunk driving, seat belt use and how other motorists might react to a car without a driver behind the wheel.

Self-driving truck technology being developed by Caterpillar Inc. at its Tucson, Ariz., division headquarters will soon be used more extensively by iron ore mines in Australia

Delphi’s self-driving car efforts in Pittsburgh and elsewhere will go by a new name, the company announced Sept. 27.

Ford will begin testing self-driving cars on ride-hailing company Lyft’s network with human drivers at the wheel for backup, the companies said Sept. 26.

As the Obamacare reform debate rages on in full force, U.S. Sen. John Thune doesn’t have his sights set entirely on the headline-stealing topics of health care and tax reform. The always busy South Dakota Republican is also eyeing legislation for the growing autonomous vehicle market, or self-driving cars.

Autonomous vehicles are the wave of a rapidly approaching future that is already bringing increasing amounts of “smart” technology to cars and trucks, and could eventually make passengers of everyone in a vehicle.

Several years after becoming an insurance agent, David Imschweiler decided on a career change, so he got his commercial driver’s license and became a truck driver.

Uber grounded its fleet of self-driving cars in Pittsburgh for a few hours the morning of Sept. 18 as the company investigated a crash involving one of its vehicles.