The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced that they will begin to conduct a study to look into the effects of implementing modern warning devices to warn of parked or disabled commercial motor vehicles. Specifically, they will be researching to see if implementing such devices will help reduce crashes. In order to collect the data they need, they will need to track data from around 260 truck drivers. According to a statement from the federal agency, the last time updates were made on issues of a similar nature was the 1980s.
They expressed how looking into the questions they have surrounding this technology is very important, given that they systems they have are so outdated. Additionally, their statement included the fact that a lot of the technology that had been considered in the past was not available at the time but now is seen in common use in the auto and trucking industries. By finding the ways to finally implement this newer technology, they would be able to sufficiently develop analyses of the effectiveness of the devices and improve upon them from the analyses they get.
The warning systems would include sensors that can measure the location of vehicles.
These sensors could be mechanisms such as differential GPS or eye-tracking devices. These sensors would allow the researchers to find the exact moment a driver looked at a parked or disabled commercial motor vehicle. From this, they would be able to determine accurate information regarding driver interactions with vehicle controls.
This study brings up the longstanding debate as to whether warning systems help traffic safety.
Historically, it is hard to track if things improve traffic safety. Because driving is as much of an individual activity as it is a societal activity, it is hard to support findings proving widespread improvement. However, with the technology that the FMCSA plans to utilize, they do hope to find answers supporting that this will improve roadside safety.
Just two days after the FMCSA announced the study, a trucking company sued them.
The trucking company, Aurora, filed a lawsuit against the administration in order to allow for a different option to the technology planned by the FMCSA. They are seeking a federal ruling that will allow them to use cab-mounted warning beacons rather than the triangle system being used by the FMCSA today. This lawsuit is in direct response to a previous denial from the FMCSA of Aurora’s request for an exemption from the system. Waymo similarly requested an exemption and was also denied.
