CVSA Approves New Inspections For Autonomous Trucks
How will driverless vehicles handle roadside inspections? The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) believes it has a solution.
CVSA’s board of directors approved the launch of a new Enhanced Commercial Motor Vehicle Inspection Program during its annual conference and exhibition in Rapid City, South Dakota in September. This is a procedure standard designed to govern commercial motor vehicle inspections with automated driving systems (ADS).
Autonomous Truck Inspection Solution
A driver conducts a pre-trip inspection before starting a trip and a post-trip inspection at the end of the trip for driver-operated commercial motor vehicles. The driver may be required to drive through a weigh or inspection station but could also be stopped on the roadside and may be subject to a standard inspections while on route.
Most roadside inspection/weigh stations create a navigational challenge for autonomous trucks and are incompatible with current roadside enforcement inspections, which heavily rely on help from drivers.
Inspection Standard From All Sides
The announcement of CVSA’s new program is the culmination of commercial motor vehicle inspectors and several law enforcement and state agencies to develop standards for inspects that are specific to fully autonomous vehicles. CVSA’s new initiative establishes a no-defect, point-of-origin inspection program for ADS-equipped CMVs. It also includes a 40-hour CVSA training course and exam for those conducting the inspections.
“This will be interesting because we’ll start to see a much wider group of people becoming certified to perform these inspections,” Rodrigues added. “Instead of randomly inspecting trucks, the program will inspect trucks consistently—at least once every 24 hours. We think this will improve the overall inspection regime and timeliness of the inspections.”
Who Will Perform The Inspections?
Rather than a driver conducting a pre-trip inspection for the new program, CVSA-trained motor carrier personnel would conduct the enhanced CMV inspection procedure on selected ADS-equipped vehicles from their fleets at the point of origin before dispatch, as well as in-transit inspections at a dictated interval throughout the trip.
The autonomous vehicle would bypass fixed inspection sites and be required to communicate to law enforcement while in motion that it passed inspections, that automated driving systems are functioning properly, and it is running within its operational design domain.
Roadside inspections of ADS vehicles by law enforcement officials would be limited to situations where an potential hazard is observed or during post-crash investigations. All autonomous vehicles must be able to respond to law enforcement when there is an attempt to pull over a vehicle as well. Any truck or trailer that fails the enhanced inspection procedure at the point of dispatch must be repaired, the CVSA added.
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