Transportation

With the gradual shift from internal combustion to electric vehicles, it is only a matter of time before the nation will have to replace gas taxes with a vehicle miles traveled system to pay for road maintenance. The most sensible way to start would be with heavy trucks.

Amidst the burgeoning advancements in autonomous vehicles, striking a balance between expectation and reality emerges as a challenge.

Despite later investigations finding automatic train operations (ATO) was not to blame for a 2009 accident—and decades of operation without problems—officials have yet to reinstate the technology in the rail system, leaving it and the region’s many commuters reliant on human workers operating trains manually.

Autonomous vehicles stand out as they offer the potential to reduce accidents & improve urban mobility. Policy decisions need to encourage this potential, rather than being swayed by emotional reactions to isolated events.

Daniel Castro speaks about autonomous vehicle adoption at an event hosted by U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Congress should include support for autonomous track geometry measurement system in the Railways Safety Act to prevent future accidents. By investing in the development and testing of innovative technologies, Congress can help ensure that the nation’s rail system is safe and reliable.

The proposed rule, while written to suggest that it will enable rail innovation and the operation of less-than-two-person crews, will in fact likely stifle continued rail innovation and limit any expansion of one-person crews and the economic productivity that generates.

As technology such as Positive Train Control systems has improved, and further advances in autonomous systems look promising, freight rail companies would like the flexibility of operating trains with less than two operators, not so they can raise profits, but so they can reduce prices to better compete with the trucking sector.

One of the benefits of electric vehicles is they cost less to maintain. But that also means there’s less profit to be had in servicing their warranties, which gives car dealers less incentive to sell them. That’s why EV makers like Tesla and Rivian depend on direct-to-consumer sales and distribution. Unfortunately, there are decades-old dealer-distribution laws standing in the way.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently denied a U.S. freight railroad permission to use autonomous track inspection technology, a loss for those promoting greater use of automation to enhance rail safety and lower costs in the supply chain.