91ÊÓƵ

At the beginning of the year, efforts to put driverless cars on California’s streets looked like they were careening.

WASHINGTON — Developing a singular autonomous vehicle policy nationwide would facilitate testing of automated trucks and connected vehicle technologies, a senior official with American Trucking Associations said Nov. 9.

The Trump administration has quietly set aside plans to require new cars to be able to wirelessly talk to each other, auto industry officials said, jeopardizing one of the most promising technologies for preventing traffic deaths.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering eliminating regulations that currently block self-driving vehicles designed without steering wheels, brake pedals or other driver controls from hitting the road.

TT's Seth Clevenger and Eugene Mulero discuss the key takeaways from the 2017 Management Conference & Exhibition, where addressing the driver shortage was one of the more prominent themes. (Joseph Terry/Transport Topics)

Drone deliveries got a step closer to reality as the White House issued an order giving local governments more authority to conduct tests of the burgeoning new technology.

Alerts about traffic, weather, work zones and other conditions should start popping up early next year on the dashboards of digitally connected vehicles on 52 miles of the Ohio Turnpike near Cleveland.

California took another step Oct. 11 toward permitting testing of self-driving vehicles without a human driver, continuing a shift away from previous policies that companies criticized as being overly restrictive.

While advancements in autonomous — or self-driving — cars get much of the attention, development of self-driving commercial vehicles is speeding forward.