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Gov. Jay Nixon vetoes platooning in Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — There won't be any driver-assist platooning of tractor-trailers in Missouri.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on July 8 vetoed the use of such technology on Missouri highways.
House Bill 1733 would have authorized the Highways and Transportation Commission to promulgate administrative rules that are reasonable and necessary to approve and implement a six-year connected vehicles technology testing program.
The law would have allowed platooning of two vehicles.
Current Missouri state law now prohibits truck and bus drivers from following another such vehicle within 300 feet.
Platooning allows trucks to travel closer together and the aerodynamics saves fuel, 4-5 percent on the lead truck, 10 percent on the trailing truck, Josh Switkes, CEO of Peloton Technology, which assists commercial drivers and fleets with safety and efficiency, told an audience at the 2015 Commercial Vehicle Outlook Conference in Dallas last August.
He said platooning would eventually allow cross-OEM and cross-fleet utilization.
Switkes said platooning is a level of automation, connecting trucks through vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-cloud communication.
It begins with an active braking system that is always engaged.
In platooning, two tractor-trailers travel in tandem about 40 feet apart.
The cloud monitors the vehicles' movement and, for instance, will apply the brakes of the trailing truck when the lead truck engages its brakes.
"The brakes of both trucks will be applied simultaneously and dramatically faster than the best human driver, who takes 1-2 seconds to apply the brake," Switkes said.
"Automated driving technology has advanced significantly within the last several years," Nixon wrote in his veto letter. "However, the long-term safety and reliability of this technology remains unproven."
Nixon cited the recent fatal accident in Florida involving a Tesla vehicle.
In that incident, the driver of a Tesla Model S that was in autopilot mode drove itself under a tractor trailer that had crossed a divided highway. The motorist was killed.
"The risks associated with automated vehicles are even greater considering the size of long-haul trucks and the catastrophic damage that could occur if the technology failed," the governor said. "Using Missouri highways as a testing ground for long-haul trucks to deploy this unproven technology is simply a risk not worth taking at this time."
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