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WASHINGTON – On a unanimous voice vote, a Senate committee approved legislation Oct. 4 that authorizes self-driving car makers to sell as many as 80,000 vehicles a year within three years that would be exempt from current safety standards as manufacturers develop technology for autonomous vehicles.

The idea of highways being filled with self-driving cars may be alluring, but it has highway safety experts raising numerous questions about common contemporary issues like drunk driving, seat belt use and how other motorists might react to a car without a driver behind the wheel.

As the Obamacare reform debate rages on in full force, U.S. Sen. John Thune doesn’t have his sights set entirely on the headline-stealing topics of health care and tax reform. The always busy South Dakota Republican is also eyeing legislation for the growing autonomous vehicle market, or self-driving cars.

Top automakers and tech companies are warning state officials the current regulations for testing self-driving cars may be too burdensome and could make it too hard or even impossible to test in Massachusetts, a move experts say would delay the economic and safety benefits expected from autonomous vehicles.

U.S. House lawmakers passed a wide-ranging bill to speed the introduction of self-driving vehicles championed by tech and auto companies racing to develop and deploy the technology.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s emphasis on streamlining regulations and reforming the U.S. tax code would help small businesses grow, freight executives said after a meeting at the White House on Aug. 1.

Federal trucking regulators would receive a boost of more than $100 million in their annual budget under a fiscal 2018 funding bill House lawmakers unveiled this week.

New guidelines for manufacturers, transportation agencies, and industry executives on the development and deployment of automated technology will be unveiled as early as this fall on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Department of Transportation, lawmakers and senior administration officials announced recently.

Ballpark Village, which is situated just outside the stadium where the St. Louis Cardinals play, provided a delightful venue for what was billed as a Trucking Leadership Symposium.

A new U.S. Department of Transportation drug testing report shows that the overall 2016 lab-reported positive drug test rate for truck drivers and other DOT security-­sensitive employees rose to its highest level since at least 2009, including year-­over-­year increases in three of five drug categories.