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WASHINGTON — While truck-to-truck communication, driver training and safety have advanced the effort to hasten platooning to market, another critical aspect is looming and just may cause momentum to pull back some: the impact on infrastructure.

Trucking firms are revved up for 2018, with predictions of tight capacity and strong demand for freight hauling setting the stage for an anticipated big year ahead for the industry, and indicators pointing to a potentially sustained period of business expansion in the United States and around the globe.

No matter your place on the political spectrum, it is undeniable passage of the Republican-led tax reform measure was a monumental feat. This week we highlight our favorite news items from Capitol Agenda in 2017.

The futuristic appeal of the autonomous vehicles that began operating Dec. 21 on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority test track is the prospect that eventually hundreds of them could be shuttling passengers around downtown.

Self-driving cars may be the future, but relinquishing control of the wheel certainly takes some getting used to. It’s one thing to go (slowly) with the flow on well-marked city streets, for which many self-driving cars were initially developed and tested, but what happens when you throw icy winter road conditions into the mix?

Another fleet of mining trucks will join the growing ranks of machines operating autonomously using Caterpillar Inc. systems in Australia next year, reflecting the company’s push to cement industry partnerships with proprietary technology.

Today, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology is making a future full of self-driving cars increasingly likely, hacking has become a serious potential concern.

2017 was a year of anticipation for the freight transportation industry, leading up to the long-awaited Dec. 18 mandate for broad adoption of electronic logging devices to track hours of service.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello (right) looks back on the 2017 year in trucking, calling it a "transition year" and expecting better things ahead for 2018. His interview with TT's Joe Howard is part of our Dec. 13 LiveOnWeb program, "2017 Year in Review."