Self-Driving Cars’ Look, Feel Is Clearer through Final U.S. Safety Rules
Automakers know exactly how safe their self-driving cars should be now that the U.S. government has updated its decades-old regulations to include vehicles without steering wheels, pedals, or seats.
In short, any light-duty vehicle designed to carry people and drive itself has to protect those people the same way that every other vehicle does.
But while these new rules offer much-needed clarity, they don’t govern how any autonomous driving system should function. NHTSA has been overtly hands-off in this area and still has no requirements for how such critical systems like emergency braking or adaptive cruise should work. But for now, the door is wide open for future autonomous cars—even if there isn't a seat at that door.
Read the article at Car and Driver.
President Biden: Replace Entire Federal Fleet with EVs
President Joe Biden said Monday the U.S. government would replace the entire federal fleet of cars, trucks and SUVs with electric vehicles manufactured in the United States, a commitment tied to a broader campaign promise to create 1 million new jobs in the American auto industry and supply chains.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America, by American workers, creating millions of jobs — a million auto worker jobs.”
The opportunity is a large one. The U.S. government had more than 645,000 vehicles in its fleet in 2019, the most recent data available from the General Services Agency. Of those, about 224,000 are passenger vehicles and more than 412,000 are trucks.
Read the article at Tech Crunch
RepairSmith Welcomes Senior Executives to Leadership Team
Today, RepairSmith, the company whose mission is to deliver convenient auto repair everywhere, announces that Alison Burnham, PhD, has been promoted to Chief Data & Analytics Officer.
Additionally, two new executives are joining the RepairSmith team, automotive industry experts Tom Peterson as Senior Vice President of Fleet and Dave Pributsky as Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.
"We are investing in best-in-class talent and technology to grow our convenient repair and maintenance service for car owners and fleets," said Joel Milne, RepairSmith CEO. "I am excited to welcome our new executives to our leadership team as we focus on expanding into new markets and advancing our services with optimizations and new features this year."
Motus Research: COVID Neglect Has Caused Soaring Maintenance Costs
By Ken Robinson, Market Research Analyst, Motus
Motus automotive data (captured and analyzed across the world’s largest retained pool of drivers) helps the company keep a pulse on industry trends.
Motus today shared insights around how not servicing a vehicle regularly as a result of COVID has led to increased maintenance issues, including:
- Battery replacements—these have increased more than 180% over pre-pandemic levels
- Vehicles not starting – reports of vehicles not starting due to an unknown issue have increased by 15% since March
- Premature brake wear – when a vehicle sits idle, rust can develop on brake rotors and cause damage to other brake components
The full findings are available here: https://www.motus.com/vehicle-maintenance-during-covid/
Transport Solutions of America Selects its 2020 Driver of the Year
TSOA, Transport Solutions of America (TSOA) announces its 2020 Driver of the Year.
TSOA is proud to recognize driver Guy Green as its 2020 Driver of the Year. Guy has a class A CDL, has been driving for TSOA for just under 4 years and is a model driver. He takes on challenging and complicated moves with excellent and consistent performance. Guy mentors and trains other drivers due to his job knowledge and teamwork.
Other achievements include one hundred percent compliance on required paperwork, vehicle condition reporting and DOT requirements.
