Ohio has become the latest state to court self-driving car and truck companies – and the first state to do so since the highly-publicized fatal crash involving an Uber in autonomous mode. Ohio Governor John Kasich is moving ahead with his plan in the hopes that autonomous vehicles will make roads safer.
Kasich signed an executive order last week which allows autonomous vehicles to be tested on public roads. Kasich noted that the executive order applies the same for both autonomous cars and trucks.
In a speech announcing the executive order, Kasich said that he hopes the move will make Ohio an attractive place for autonomous vehicle companies to set up shop. This could bring well-paying jobs to Ohio and help keep college graduates from moving to other states.
But the primary motivator for Kasich seems to be the promise that autonomous vehicles will make roads safer. Kasich is one of the many Americans whose lives have been impacted by drunk driving. His parents were killed in 1987 when a drunk driver crashed into their vehicle.
Kasich seems to be placing a lot of faith in technology, even going so far as to bar communities from implementing their own regulations that would ban autonomous vehicles from their roads.
“We’re not going to permit communities to start blocking this because then you create a hodgepodge this is unworkable,” said Kasich. “Some people are going to be nervous. I mean would you want to put your kids in the car, would you want to put your spouse in the car? Well you have to test this stuff and I think we have enough guardrails around this.”
In order for companies to start testing, they need to register with DriveOhio and meet multiple requirements including the following:
- Vehicles must comply with state and federal safety standards
- Vehicles must comply with traffic laws
- An employee with a valid driver’s license must be behind the wheel of the vehicle
- The employee must monitor the vehicle at all times
For a full list of the requirements, you can see the executive order here.
Source: Ohio, Ohio, truckinginfo, cleveland, bodyshopbusiness, wosu, digitaltrends, news5cleveland
Morons gonna moron.
Their is alot of money going in his pockets for signing that bill .
The Ohio governor obviously doesn’t have a CDL.
I think he needs voted out , he is taking money to push it through, I just sat 25 hours at a Budwieser plant, do you think they can pay for 1 million dollar trucks to wait on docks
As quickly as certain states have embraced this tech, it would be interesting to see the legislators bank accounts and investment portfolios. Ohio has a pretty high number of truck drivers, will these companies provide more jobs to overcome the potential longterm job loss? Probably not, but let’s be honest, Kasich doesn’t care about anyone but himself just like 99 percent of humans. Passing an exeutive order without the people’s approval is never a wise idea, considering their is still a 70 plius percent wholesale rejection rate.
Kasich is pandering. How do you expect people to maintain their driving skills (essential when something in the machine in which they are texting on their phones, reading whatever, or otherwise mentally engaged) if the vehicle “drives itself? We already have people who can’t drive (tailgating, speeding, weaving lanes, do not use directional signals)…why should we go hellbent for leather towards rewarding that behavior?
Cheers for the governors forward thinking. Electronics can stare at that white line much longer than humans can and without distractions. 🙂
Really?!? How do you explain the Tesla driver that ran into the back of a stopped fire department vehicle at a red light just last week? The driver couldn’t keep their hands off their phone. We, as drivers, aren’t disciplined enough for this technology unless the tech can tell when the human is attentive to driving. It is definitely a technology for the future but not now. Obviously someone or some thing has to be in control of the vehicle. Too often, neither is the case which has resulted in serious injury and death. I support the idea but until there are more safeguards in place to ensure the driver is paying attention, the technology is useless.
I agree good point. Great idea but we definitely are not ready for it.
You are confusing glorified cruise control with autonomous vehicles.
The Tesla has an early version of enhanced cruise control, which requires the driver to take control when there is a situation the car can’t deal with.
The truly autonomous vehicles have more sensors and more powerful computers, and are able to see better than a human under any conditions, and make faster decisions.
So the Tesla crash is no reflection on true autonomous vehicles.
yah..that uber vehicle in phoenix.totally failed to detect the
pedestrian walking the bicycle…she’s dead and the video shwoeing the failure is nowhere to be founf
You’re absolutely correct
Think about the genius of your statement Pres then next time you want to throw that tv remote out the window that they have had years to perfect and still pisses you off every once in a while…..
Until it snows and there is no white line
The governor of Ohio believe that these vehicles we’ll make the road safer if they really want to make the roads safer why don’t they have state inspections for vehicles on their roadways that would help out a lot in safety to have no drivers behind the wheel of a automatic driving vehicle is not the safest thing to do hooray for the governor of Ohio remember it is all about the safety $$$$$$
Morons! How will it be safer with robot cars and trucks driving themselves? I almost guarantee there will be more accidents and lawsuits than they have ever seen. Guarantee I won’t be driving anymore
True autonomous vehicles (with no need for any driver period) are at least still 20 years away or MORE. Especially for Big Rigs… The sensors needed for travel on icey and snow packed roads, through heavy fog and rain, and on gravel/dirt roads with no markings is not yet as sophisticated as it need to be. We are not there yet!
We basically have “diver assist” technology. Tesla’s founder even agree that “the human brain is still better behind the wheel in DIVERSE WEATHER etc., well right now at least…”
That is really simple to solve.
You run the autonomous trucks on runs with decent roads, and decent weather.
You will soon be seeing fully autonomous trucks running dedicated runs between warehouses in warm states with decent roads.
As they prove themselves, they will expand out, but I expect that for a long time to come the primary use will be dedicated terminal to terminal runs, where the driver isn’t needed for any other function, and the yard jockeys handle the rest at each end.
Yes, a truck that can handle all weather and road conditions is a ways off, but there is little need or cost savings for that, since usually those runs need the drivers for other purposes as well.
And I am willing to bet you don’t know a brake chamber from an egr valve.
No dice don’t buy it trucking companys refuse to pay drivers so they are demanding these self driving trucks to move forward. Pawns like Kasich will do anything for votes hell he still believes he can make another run a President really not making it up. So we get rid of a couple hundred thousand jobs and replace them with China jobs thanks governor.
Ya this is a train wreck waiting to happen good god idiots
How long do you think americans will sit in a car that stops for proper amount of time at all stop signs, slows down to stop for changing signal lights, slows down to yield to merge, slows down if it “sences” a potential hazard ect. I sure hope the dasboards are heavily padded because after the newness of this stupid technology wears off there will be a whole lot of americans pounding those dash’s with their fist’s screaming and cussing because they’re late for this, late for that and dont have time or patience to obey all traffic laws. Unbelievable!
I’d like to see Kasick’s bank account to see how many of these tech companies have bankrolled his summer house, retirement, etc. Isn’t it ironic how he contradicts himself asking if you would want your family near them, but ignorantly stating their are safegaurds and it needs to be tested? Kasick only cares about himself.
I agree, I’m sure he is getting well paid for endorsing this idea.
How long do you think americans will sit in a car that stops for proper amount of time at all stop signs, slows down to stop for changing signal lights, slows down to yield to merge, slows down if it “sences” a potential hazard ect. I sure hope the dasboards are heavily padded because after the newness of this stupid technology wears off there will be a whole lot of americans pounding those dash’s with their fist’s screaming and cussing because they’re late for this, late for that and dont have time or patience to obey all traffic laws. Unbelievable!
How bout the one that hit the semi
Or the one that killed a cyclist hmmm super safe yea right.
All THES points are valid. It’s still a work in progress. Let’s test this for another decade and perhaps we will be able to relate to the jetsons.
George Jetson still had to steer his flying saucer
I like technology. It is the way forward to be sure. The main problem with it today is that it has become highly politicized. Pandering to it on that front has resulted in the Ethanol debacle; plus a developing debacle with regard to “renewable” energy technologies being rushed into production, at great public cost, before it is appropriately developed. The same premature rush seems to be taking place with regard to autonomous vehicles. Just because something is technically doable, doesn’t mean its commercially, “or even technically” viable.
You don’t know what you are talking about…freight hauler
if the dri er of Uber was paying attention that woman nevrr would of been hit.
And if the computer had been programed properly, the lady would never have been hit.
The car had a laser sensor that would have easily been able to see her, the manufacturer even tested it themselves under those conditions and it picked her up from a block away or whatever, but for whatever reason the way Uber had the computer programmed, it ignored that sensor.
As a result of that, all the other companies are testing the same scenarios to make sure that their systems will pick it up properly.
You are probably a bot.
You have enough guard rails to safeguard what???? Everything that can possibly go wrong? Let’s put up big signs entering ohio, ” welcome to ohio, killing zones ahead”. Hope you have lots of body bags. Hope your “safe” vehicles don’t start running into semi trucks. You probably don’t remember what happened to your state last time you pissed off a bunch of truckers. Good luck to ya…
That figures Kasich is a moron anyway..how would you like sitting at an intersection and a self driving trk hit ya in the gas tank..
When we’ll everyone figure out technology is only as smart as the programmer that programs it big mistake there well be a lot more fatal crashes because of some falt in the programming and they would have to download bug fixes technology should not be used in objects that are around so many bystanders.don’t know about you but remember when y2k was a big thing imaging that with autonomous vehicles. Or the blue screen of death with Microsoft. Hacker well figure out away to get into the programs then we are all screwed can’t stop a car or semi truck that easy.
Safety my butt….the only way there will be 0 fatalities is to close all the streets and hiways, scrap every vehicle in existence and make people walk. Technology is not infallible, nor will it ever be. Perfection does not exist in this world
Glad to retire in a few years world has gone nuts going off grid. With my dogs a bag of weed and nature screw these little early all they want is your blood stupid sheep.
At least when the truck sensors fail here, they’ll just go bajaing into a cornfield somewhere.
Glad to retire in a few years world has gone nuts going off grid. With my dogs and nature . Anyone ask themselves what will happen to all the drivers ? Stupid we just can’t leave well enough alone .
Sorry, this is not exactly related, but when I opened up this story I saw a blood-sucking ambulance chaser ad as a pop up. And, believe it or not, this screwball was trying to screw over drivers and trucking companies – you know, like the ‘hammer’ trying to scam us out of our money after THEY caused an accident. Unbelievable, right on here!! I did go on their chat line and let em know what I thought, but I held back and just told them that they were not only crass but downright STUPID.
Yeah, right, self-driving trucks will make the roads safer just like implementing the 14 hour rule did. What a freakin’ moron! Wonder how much $$$ the self-driving truck backers contributed to the governor’s campaign. 😠
I drove a new Volvo truck last winter here in Canada. It had sensors and cameras to keep it away from other traffic. It had adaptive cruise control that slowed the truck down to match the speed of traffic in front. It had very annoying bells and whistles. All of it worked fine until a snowstorm in which the snow was pretty heavy and wet. The sensors above the bumper stopped working, because they got clogged with the white stuff. The camera could not tell if the truck was between the lines. The whole system became totally useless ( not that I cried about it. I hated it ). At least at that moment the truck in question had an experienced and a competent driver behind the wheel, who was able to drive it down the stormy road to its destination. That will not always be the case in the future when the autonomous and self driving trucks will filk the highways. As with any technology that makes life easier, humans become complacent and worse at the thing it replaced. They lose skills. Just look at the automated transmission. Once all cars in North America had them auto gear boxes, people on the whole lost the ability to drive manual. All of a sudden threy could pay less attention, plan less, use their brain less, plus now they had a free hand, which could be used for other things than driving. That took more attention away from the task at hand. Nowdays that hand is used for texting and scrolling on their smartphones, which we truck drivers see all the time, every day. Adding to that, now the trucking companies are ordering only the automated transmissions, so they can get more bodies behind the wheel, who normally would not make it there. I can already see the mayhem happening here on Canada’s highways, where the roads are filled with truck drivers coming from a culture not known for good driving.
Kasich is proving once again just how stupid he is.
There are enough guardrails around?!!! And what the hell does his family members dieing at the hands of a drunk driver have to do with the safety of autonomous vehicles… other than try to make everyone feel sorry for him so that he can have his way?
Hi, I’m a Russian hacker. I can’t wait for all these autonomous trucks to hit the road. This is just going to be loads of fun! Oh now that was a sick pun! ( The above comment may be fictional or it may not ).
So when this thing kills someone,good luck with trying to sue somebody! Those cars got parts manufactured by pandoras box!!!
Tax payer will pay the bill like always ,let see how many people die in the name of safety
Someone should do something about this guy. People like this threaten our livelihoods and all we do is bitch on the comments section. Think about it. They want to take away our income. They are the enemy. There is no common ground here. They are not our friends, we need to stop this now!
Just think of all the people are going to be put out of work some day with these self-driving trucks see people don’t really give a damn who they put out of work or whose lives are ruined that’s going to put a lot of people out of work
Well it’s coming and all the nay saying won’t stop it. I think it will be the greatest life saver since penicillin We lose over 45,000 a year to accidents and it’s not getting any better. I see 4 wheelers and truck drivers driving their vehicles according to their mood of the moment .
Get rid of alcohol and cigarettes and save millions of lives. How about that?
Kasich has done nothing for Ohio, and President Trump clearly showed this via creating jobs under Kasich’s nose shortly after taking office. This man saddens me and I’m glad that I’m moving.
All of these officials who most likely have taken money from the manufactures of autonomous vehicles. 1) if it requires a driver to monitor it Think People someone is paying the driver if for commercial use plus the overpriced cost of the vehicle. Have you not learned your lesson on murdrring innocent people.
They size the Uber incident, the Driver from a tech firm so confident in his robotic car he felt he didn’t have to pay attention whoops died.. imagine this “ privilege being given to 80,000 pound trucks!!!!! That can’t stop on a dime , how far back in bumper to bumper traffic will they stay to be able to respond to the guy who just pulled in front and slammed on breaks, or the car that gets on moves over 4 lanes then flies in front just to get off next exit. By the way who do we sue?
Irony the driver will get blamed for something his autonomous vehicle couldn’t respond to or alert him far enough. I have a CDL why doesn’t the same CSA criteria points be put on 4 wheel vehicles ! Towed due to accident not on his license.
I am an O/O. Despite ATA and the mega carriers trying to run us off
This is serious A Driver for Werner in 2014 was involved in an accident ( by the way the records are public if anyone wishes to read it. A woman and children 17, 12, younger one were reveling down the Ivey highway when she lost control crossed the median ( this happens so fast) the Werner driver in control proven he did everything right he could , yes he did hit her after she crossed the median so quickly he maintained control to a stop. As Stated Prevented ANY further accidents. He had no where to go without taking out the cars and trucks the lanes next to him preventing more deaths. The 17 year old was killed the youngest left a quadrapalegic mother and daughter considered to have traumatic brain injury . It was her fault she lost control for whatever reason, talking to kids, cell phones in car or her inability to drive in those weather conditions!
None the less her fault. She probably did not have insurance enough to care for her Qaudrapalegic daughter so they went after deep packets
“Werner” just awarded 90 Million .
It is going to appeals. But for once call, write Werner stand up for this man”
My point is can you tell me an autonomous vehicle would be able to tell an entire medium across to the highway going in the opposite direction that some lady would loose control in the blink of an eye come across and that same autonomous vehicle would prevent it? That the driver monitoring it with a car coming across a good distance could avoid it? That the driver either stay steady in control or would wonder vehicle panic move over into other lanes swerve out of the way to kill the people in those lanes?
Truckers get your heads together think as one not big vs small because we all hold CDL and could happen to anyone.
As a retired Medical Provider believe I
Have seen those who should sue and don’t thinking they’ll take care of it to proud , those that really had not have reason reasons but some heartfelt jurors think anyone who makes more than them has a back stash to hand out.
Please be cateful We are not the
“Jetsons” on top of it some driver is still getting paid so why do we need autonomous vehicles.
Check who promised who what. Like the ELD FMCSA and tech grants start it company spend time money invest in research how’s FMCSA and Congress going to tell these companies sorry hadn’t improved safety.
This is directly from a Co leased to
We can’t do paper logs “ the staff can not read add subtract to be able to input the hours in correct catagorys
Again so tech can’t count back change these are the Pantjers and there spin offs
There are one million people killed in automobile accidents around the world, and 30,000+ killed in the U.S. each year, and 20 to 50 million more injured or permanently disabled. People are lousy drivers. Road warriors of all people should know this better than anyone.
Yes, I realize that you fear for your jobs, which are on the verge of obsolescence, just as wagon salesmen feared for theirs, when the Model A Ford began mass production for an affordable price.
The facts are that we’ve been replacing people with machines since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and all jobs will become obsolete once computers can design themselves (in the next 100 years or so). Any employer that can replace an employee with a machine, but refuses to do so, is put out of business by their competition that does.
Computers keep their “eye” on the road, 360°, 100% of the time. If a autonomous vehicle should never be put on the road, because it makes a mistake, then the next question is have you never made a mistake? The difference is, the vehicle can be updated with new software, and won’t make that same mistake again. Within 20 years, it will be mandatory that all vehicles on the road be autonomous (two wheeled motorcycles will likely be banned from roadways, unless some self driving technology can be developed).
30% of drivers text while driving.
500,000 accidents worldwide involve trucks each year.
20,000 truck drivers are injured, 500+ die.
4% of registered vehicles are trucks, but 9% of crash deaths involve a truck.
Politicians who aren’t embracing the technology, that will save thousands of lives each year, are the ones who are ignoring statistics, or taking bribes. But since you aren’t putting your money into the to coffer, there’s no money to bribe them with. Would you contribute to bribery, delaying autonomous vehicles, that will cost so many lives?
If you were to be given the money to buy a truck, would you buy a truck driven by a human being, who argues with you, makes excuses, demands to go home, refuses loads, lies, etc, or a truck that can drive 24/7 and doesn’t do any of that?
Tell your story walking bleeding heart. I bet you money hand over fist my job isn’t going anywhere, you have no idea what this job involves.
Paid off to sign the bill.
This is a train wreck waiting to happen without any rails. Seems like everything they legislate defies common sense. The 11 and 14 has got to be one of the most stupid Dumbfoundead moves they’ve ever made. this just adds insult to injury like most drivers I could go on and on. If it falls under good common sense it doesn’t happen.