What NHTSA’s New Rules for Cars Say about Trucks

In the U.S. Department of Transportation Significant Rulemakings Report released in September 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed important rulemakings for commercial motor vehicles. NHTSA also included a whole raft of significant rulemakings affecting the manufacturing standards for new passenger vehicles.

Well, you might say, “at least there are some government regulations I don’t need to worry about!” That might be true at this moment, but not in the future. First, cars and trucks do share the road, so how manufacturers equip future cars will impact the interaction between the two types of vehicles. Second, what NHTSA intends for cars today may say much about what they look to develop for trucks tomorrow.

Let’s look at just two examples. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law mandated that NHTSA develop a rulemaking to prescribe a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requiring automakers to equip passenger motor vehicles with technology to prevent drunk and impaired driving. In the Significant Rulemakings Report, NHTSA announced an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, seeking public comments on what that technology may be. The 2021 Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver results showed alcohol and drugs as a top five violation among motorists. So, equipping cars with technology to prevent drunk and impaired driving may be a strong safety measure.

But also consider this. In the 1990s the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration attempted to measure truck driver fatigue. FMCSA worked with a major motor carrier that voluntarily equipped trucks with devices requiring drivers to enter a randomly generated series of numbers before the truck engine would start. FMCSA theorized that failure or delay in completing the task indicated fatigue or impairment. Once NHTSA chooses a technology to prevent impaired driving in passenger cars, could a regulation on new trucks be far behind?

Here is the second example. NHTSA announced a significant rulemaking to require that all passenger vehicles be capable of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication by use of onboard dedicated short-range radio communication devices. Those devices would broadcast messages about a vehicle’s speed, heading, brake status, and other information to other vehicles and receive the same information in return. Industry experts believe fully autonomous vehicles could navigate traffic with this shared information. Even without full autonomy, human drivers could be alerted to nearby vehicles.

Over-reliance on technology is a continuing safety concern. Technology can dampen driver attention to what is actually happening on the road. What is happening on the road very well may involve cars (and trucks) without these V2V communication devices. Only human beings can process information that is not being communicated electronically.

Technology might aid tomorrow’s car-truck interactions, but we will continue to depend on human awareness. NHTSA rulemakings can address one but not the other.

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