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The Obama administration is opening U.S. skies to more commercial drones with long-awaited regulations that the government hopes will spawn new industries for inspecting bridges, monitoring crops and taking aerial photography.

In a brief filed with a federal appeals court, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration defended a legal challenge to the agency’s electronic logging device rule by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

A yearlong federal field test of 150 Class 8 tractor­-trailers equipped with collision avoidance systems had no rear-­end crashes, a new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study revealed.

Establishing programs that transportation officials and experts may use to devise strategies to reduce congestion through advanced technologies will need to be a part of the next long-term transportation bill, Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) told stakeholders June 9.

The growth of technological systems used in autonomous vehicles in the United States, such as adaptive cruise control and self-steering, could speed the adoption of electronic braking system technology, which sends an electronic control signal to activate brakes.

Volvo Group’s two North American truck making units, Mack and Volvo, said they are offering the option to link their remote diagnostic systems with communications services from Omnitracs with the goal of providing fleet managers with more information on safety and operations.

Venture Express Inc., a Tennessee-based fleet that specializes in serving the automotive industry, announced the acquisition of Chambers Leasing Systems Inc., an Ohio carrier, to expand the buyer’s services in the Midwest.