BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 719 Hearing Date: 4/14/2015
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|Author: |Hernandez |
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|Version: |2/27/2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Eric Thronson |
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SUBJECT: Testing motor vehicle platooning technologies
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) to test technologies that involve motor vehicles
being operated with less than 100 feet between them.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law restricts a driver of a motor vehicle from
following another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and
prudent, depending on various factors such as the speed of his
or her vehicle and the traffic on and condition of the roadway.
Further, existing law specifies that a driver of a truck cannot
follow any closer than 300 feet behind another truck, except to
pass, unless travelling on a highway with two or more lanes in
the same direction of travel.
This bill:
1.Authorizes Caltrans, in coordination with the California
Highway Patrol (CHP), to test technologies that involve motor
vehicles being operated with less than 100 feet between each
vehicle or combination of vehicles.
2.Requires CHP to authorize the motor vehicles as well as the
streets and highways that Caltrans may use in testing these
technologies.
3.Requires Caltrans to report its findings from these tests to
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the Legislature on or before July 1, 2017.
4.Sunsets on January 1, 2018.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose. Recently, a partnership between Caltrans, the
University of California at Berkeley, private truck
manufacturers, and others received a federal grant to
demonstrate partially automated trucks in closely spaced
operations, also known as "truck platooning." Caltrans states
that this grant funding supports a research project designed
to explore three potential benefits of truck platooning:
increasing throughput, reducing fuel consumption due to
improved aerodynamics, and the resulting emission reductions
from reduced fuel consumption.
According to the author, Caltrans needs a temporary exemption
from existing law in order to perform the truck platooning
tests. This bill grants Caltrans the necessary exemption from
existing law.
2.Truck platooning and connected vehicles. Due to the fact that
people operating vehicles require time and space to react to
changing driving conditions, the present system of driving on
roadways requires a tremendous amount of space between
vehicles. The amount of space between vehicles increases as
the speed of the vehicles increases. For example, a parked
car requires approximately 100 square feet of ground space.
When the same vehicle is moving at 70 mph, because of the
longitudinal space requirements to allow for human reaction
time, it requires approximately 5,000 square feet of space on
a freeway. This space requirement is even higher for trucks
and commands a premium price in an already developed urban
environment such as southern California.
Automated Highway Systems, or AHS, holds great promise in
improving traffic flow on congested roadways and promises
dramatic improvements in capacity. AHS is a vehicle- and
road-based system that can drive a vehicle automatically.
This is done using sensors that determine a vehicle's lane
position and the speed and location of other vehicles.
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Actuators on the throttle, brake, and steering wheel give the
vehicle the necessary commands to safely navigate the vehicle
on the roadway. AHS vehicles often also have equipment to
communicate with other AHS vehicles. Automated highways are
safer, more efficient, and produce lower emissions compared to
the traffic flow on conventional highways.
The objective of Caltrans' latest project is to improve
freight operations by building on previous research that
successfully demonstrated two-truck platoons driving as
closely as three meters apart at highway speeds. This project
will advance the state of the art in driver-assist systems
that facilitate the formation of three-truck platoons, and
will tackle the technical challenges of automating lane
changing, merging, and joining and leaving a truck platoon.
Caltrans claims that AHS will eventually deliver incredible
benefits to the state. Automating truck speed and spacing, in
conjunction with vehicle-to-vehicle communications, can as
much as double throughput capacity on the state's highways.
Close-formation platoons also reduce aerodynamic drag, with
fuel consumption savings - and carbon emissions reductions -
in the range of 10% to 15%. Ultimately, successful platoon
maneuvering on dedicated truck-ways may help to accommodate
future increases in freight volumes in high-density urban
corridors.
3.Improve clarity of language. As written, this bill authorizes
Caltrans "to conduct testing of technologies that involve
motor vehicles being operated with less than 100 feet between
each vehicle or combination of vehicles." Some suggest this
language is too ambiguous, as "technologies that involve motor
vehicles" driving closely with each other could mean a number
of different things. For example, because the description of
the testing is written in such a passive tense, it could allow
Caltrans to test remote-controlled vehicles without drivers to
operate in close proximity to each other. While the
possibility of automated technologies which allow for drivers
to "connect" to neighboring vehicles while travelling in
tandem is promising, some may be uncomfortable with the
concept of sharing the highway with driverless, entirely
autonomous vehicles.
Caltrans states that the testing which this bill authorizes is
for trucks with drivers to "platoon" on existing highways.
Given that Caltrans knows what specific technology they intend
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to test in this research project, there seems to be no reason
to describe the testing with such ambiguous language. In
fact, it may be valuable for the Legislature to clearly
describe the type of testing Caltrans is authorized to
conduct. In this light, the committee may wish to clarify
what Caltrans is authorized to test by amending the bill to
state that Caltrans:
May conduct testing of technologies which enable drivers
to safely operate motor vehicles with less than 100 feet
between each vehicle or combination of vehicles.
1.Technical amendment.
Line 17, insert "to" between "pursuant" and
"subdivision".
RELATED LEGISLATION:
SB 431 (Beall) - requires that an officer's determination of
what is a reasonable and prudent following distance take into
account the presence of vehicle automation technology, such as a
"driver-assistive truck platooning system" as defined. This
bill is pending in this committee.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.: Yes Local: No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 8, 2015.)
SUPPORT:
None received.
OPPOSITION:
None received.
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