Dive Brief:
- The Department of Transportation appointed its acting chief of artificial intelligence and other emerging tech to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency announced Tuesday.
- Acting Administrator Vinn White has worked for more than a decade at the federal DOT in the Obama and Biden administrations. He retains his role as acting chief AI officer, which he has held since 2021.
- “Our agency is focused on enhancing safety for all roadway users, and I am committed to working with safety partners across the commercial motor vehicle industry to get this work done,” White said in the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The length of White’s tenure as the FMCSA’s top official will likely be determined by the outcome of this year’s presidential election.
But his promotion to acting FMCSA chief and deputy administrator at the trucking industry’s primary safety regulator reflects the growing role automation is playing in transportation.
The agency has been without a permanent leader since the resignation of Administrator Robin Hutcheson in January. Trucking groups have expressed a desire for the next administrator to understand and listen to the industry — or even come from a trucking background.
White’s background is in government and policy, rather than trucking, according to his LinkedIn page. His experience in the development and implementation of AI in transportation could prove valuable, however, as some driverless tech firms prepare to remove safety operators from trucks as soon as later this year.
The federal transportation department has demonstrated its appetite for AI expertise in key leadership roles. The DOT hired Allison Dane Camden, whose experience includes leading an AI truck parking pilot on the West Coast, to head its Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy.
White is the third administrator to lead the FMCSA this year alone. Deputy Administrator Sue Lawless has served as the agency’s acting leader since Hutcheson’s departure in January.
