The U.S. Department of Transportation granted Aurora Innovation a five-year exemption from a federal rule requiring drivers to place warning devices, such as reflective triangles, around stopped trucks. The rule effectively required a human to be present, making the exemption a key step in Aurora’s plan to commercially deploy fully autonomous trucks.
Aurora and Waymo sought the waiver in 2023. They argued that vehicle-mounted warning beacons could make driverless trucks safer by alerting other road users without requiring someone to place triangles on a busy highway. The companies compared the beacons to those used on emergency vehicles.
The exemption allows Aurora and other autonomous trucking firms to use beacons instead of warning triangles, advancing efforts to launch commercial self-driving services in the U.S.