National

Percentage change in pedestrian fatalities per 100k people

Data: Governors Highway Safety Association; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

As lockdowns eased in the second year of the pandemic, the number of people struck and killed by drivers rose in many states, according to a new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Driving the news: Pedestrian fatalities increased in all but 11 states during the first six months of 2021 compared with the same period of 2020, with 3,441 people killed while they walked near roadways.

Fatalities were up 17% for the first half of 2021 compared with 2020, the report said.

Why it matters: The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) says that its "Safe System" approach to traffic safety could make a big dent in the problem.

The approach — which helped reduce road deaths in Australia by 47% and in Spain by 80% — envisions "creating a transportation system that accommodates human mistakes and keeps impacts on the human body at survivable levels," the GHSA says.

The association's five-step system involves educating consumers about everything from driver impairment to seat belts, enforcing speed limits and road safety measures, and investing in post-crash care.

Details:  Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia had increases in pedestrian fatalities during the period studied, while only 11 states had decreases. 

The states with the biggest increase in the number of pedestrian deaths were Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and New York. 

The states with the biggest increase in the percentage of pedestrian deaths were Vermont, Maine, Wyoming, South Carolina and Massachusetts. (Because states vary widely in population, just a small shift in fatality numbers can represent a large change in percentages.)

Connecticut saw the largest drop in number (-11), followed by North Carolina (-10) and Kansas and Missouri (-8).

Nebraska saw the largest percentage drop (-67%), followed by Connecticut (-39%) and New Hampshire (-38%). 

Silver lining: Hawaii, Nebraska and Virginia had "two consecutive years of declines in pedestrian fatalities in the first half of the year, while Connecticut and North Carolina both experienced double-digit declines," per the report.

Thomas Wheatley's angle from Axios Atlanta: Most roads in Georgia and metro Atlanta are designed to move cars as quickly and efficiently as possible, a choice by local and state governments that puts pedestrians and cyclists at great risk for serious injuries or death.

Pedestrian fatalities rose post-pandemic lockdown

Most states saw more pedestrian deaths in the first six months of 2021.

Deaths

Transportation

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

After two years of pandemic-related cancellations, Americans are splurging on "revenge travel" to make up for lost time, treating themselves to premium airfares, nicer accommodations and longer stays.

Why it matters: Even though inflation is making everything more expensive — and there's the risk of a widening conflict in Europe — travelers nevertheless are tired of putting their plans on hold and are seeking retribution against COVID-19 and its grip on their lives.

"People are saying, 'Let's pull the trigger and travel for real this time,'" says Brian Kelly, CEO of The Points Guy, a travel advisory site. 

Driving the news: Nearly nine out of 10 Americans (85%) are expecting to travel this summer, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

Nearly half (48%) plan to take two weeks or more off, the group says. 

AAA reports that 2022 travel bookings are off to a much stronger start compared with this time last year, while the CEO of Expedia Group predicts this summer will be "the busiest travel season ever.”

New York, Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida, are popular, along with London, Paris and Cancun, Mexico. 

National parks are popular too, so much so that many, including Yosemite, are now requiring reservations to enter. 

People aren't just traveling more, they're spending more too. And why not?  Many people are feeling flush after hunkering down for the past two years. 

Some also have travel vouchers from previously canceled trips that they are eager to use.

Travel prices have risen sharply in 2022, driven in part by the soaring cost of jet fuel. 

Domestic airfares are up 40% since the beginning of the year, to $330, according to Hopper, a travel app that tracks and predicts flight and hotel prices. That's about 7% above pre-pandemic prices.

Hopper predicts domestic fares will keep rising another 10%, to an average of $360, by May. 

International fares are likely to rise about 15% between now and June, to about $940, the company predicts.

The rise of premium leisure travel is one of the biggest trends to come out of the pandemic.

Even though business travel remains weak, first-class cabins are filled with passengers willing to pay extra for a more luxurious experience. 

Airlines are catering to this new class of traveler by investing in expanded cabins, more comfortable seats and fancier airport lounges. 

Delta Air Lines, for example, plans to include lie-flat beds and a premium economy section on some of its newest planes, according to Skift's Airline Weekly. 

United Airlines, meanwhile, introduced new vacation routes from New York to the European islands of the Azores in Portugal and Mallorca in Spain. 

The big picture: With global COVID cases declining, many countries have eased their travel restrictions.

Cruise ships have also dropped their mask mandates, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its risk advisory for cruise ship travel.

Be smart: Some countries still require visitors to complete a health form, provide proof of vaccination and present a recent negative COVID test result. The CDC has all the details here. 

Even Americans still need to test negative before returning to the United States, although major airlines have asked President Biden to end the testing requirement along with the current mask mandate for all public transportation.

What to watch: With a glimmer of hope for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, The Points Guy is seeing a spike in searches for travel to London and Paris. 

"My gut says this will be a big summer for Americans who miss European capitals," says Kelly. 

The summer of "revenge travel"

Americans are splurging on seeing the world after months of restrictions, despite higher prices.

Illustration of Benjamin Franklin holding a tropical cocktail while wearing a sunhat and sunglasses.

Travel

Autonomous trucks could one day replace more than 90% of all highway trucking, which could have a profound impact on as many as 500,000 long-haul truckers, a new study found. 

Why it matters: Automation, and its potential impact on human labor, is a widespread concern for workers in many industries. While labor markets continually evolve, it often takes time for displaced workers to adapt to new jobs requiring different skills.

The big picture: Long-haul trucking is a grueling job, with a high turnover rate. Last year, the industry faced a record shortage of 80,000 drivers. 

Driving the news: The study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University assessed the impact of autonomous trucking on operator-hours, depending on how the technology — now being tested in Sun Belt states — is deployed.

They looked at operator-hours, not jobs, because many truckers are independently employed. 

Using federal data about trucking shipments, and the operator-hours used to fulfill those shipments, they explored various deployment scenarios and how those might evolve over time.

What they found: The impacts of automation might not happen all at once. 

“If automation is restricted to Sun Belt states (including Florida, Texas and Arizona) — because the technology may not initially work well in rough weather — about 10% of the operator hours will be affected,” said study co-author Parth Vaishnav, assistant professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability.

If automated trucks were deployed across the U.S., in all types of weather, then up to 94% of operator hours would be affected — the equivalent of 500,000 truck driver jobs, their research found.

The findings are consistent with a sprawling 2020 MIT study, which concluded that technological advances in AI and automation will have an enormous impact on the workforce, but it may take decades for those effects to be fully felt.

How it would work: Many automated trucking developers envision the use of transfer hubs, where cargo trailers would be handed off between humans and robots. 

Autonomous trucks would carry freight on the highway, between the hubs. 

Human drivers in conventional trucks would then take over on local streets to the final destination.

What they're saying: Drivers displaced by autonomous trucks could find work closer to home on short-haul routes, or even in newly created logistics jobs at transfer hubs, AT developers say. 

But the U-M study found that those jobs would not be sufficient to fully replace long-haul truckers' earnings.

Short-haul jobs typically pay less than long-haul jobs, the study noted.

Editor's note: This story originally published on March 28. 

Automation could send long-haul truckers driving into the sunset

Study finds self-driving trucks could eventually affect up to 500,000 drivers

Image of an Aurora self-driving truck on the highway

Aurora-powered PACCAR trucks are autonomously hauling freight for FedEx in pilot testing in Texas. Photo: Aurora

Trucks

Automation and AI

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Saturday that "supply chain interruptions" and China's zero-COVID policy made for an "exceptionally difficult quarter."  

Driving the news: Tesla produced 305,407 vehicles and delivered over 310,048 vehicles during the first quarter, "despite ongoing supply chain challenges and factory shutdowns," according to Business Wire.

"Outstanding work by Tesla team and key suppliers saved the day," Musk wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

Catch up quick: Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings in 2021 beat Wall Street estimates, reporting $17.72 billion in revenues and $2.54 earnings per share. 

Tesla last year also said supply chain constraints were the "main limiting factor" in vehicle production, Axios' Ben Geman reports. 

What to watch: Tesla will post its financial results for the first quarter of 2022 on April 20. 

Go deeper: 3 takeaways from Tesla's big quarter

Elon Musk touts Q1 results despite "exceptionally difficult quarter"

"Outstanding work by Tesla team and key suppliers saved the day," Musk said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is pictured as he attends the start of the production at Tesla's "Gigafactory" on March 22, 2022 in Gruenheide, southeast of Berli

Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the production of Tesla's "Gigafactory" on March 2 in Gruenheide, Germany, southeast of Berlin. Photo: Patrick Pleul - Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla

Elon Musk

FedEx Express will soon begin testing a new short-haul air cargo system using autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft developed by Elroy Air, a California startup named for the boy in the "Jetsons." 

Why it matters: Self-flying cargo planes could help FedEx Express move goods among warehouses more safely and efficiently amid the exponential growth of e-commerce. 

Driving the news: The companies said they would begin flight testing in 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas, using Elroy's Chaparral autonomous aircraft.

Like similar aircraft, Elroy's VTOL ascends and descends like a helicopter but flies like a plane. 

It can pick up a cargo pod weighing 300 to 500 pounds without human interaction, and can deliver it within a range of 300 miles.

Unlike electric VTOLs from other manufacturers, Elroy's plane is a hybrid, so it doesn't require additional infrastructure such as airports or charging stations. 

What they're saying: "When you're not limited by challenging infrastructure, traffic or airports, logistics can reach more people, faster than ever before," said Kofi Asante, Elroy Air's vice president of business development and strategy. 

"We look forward to working together to create a new future for how we get goods to people around the world."

The big picture: The self-flying air cargo system is the latest step by FedEx to find innovative technologies to handle rising delivery volumes.

By potentially taking trucks off the road, the hybrid aircraft also helps FedEx toward its goal of carbon-neutral operations by 2040. 

FedEx taps Jetsons-inspired Elroy Air for self-flying cargo runs

Self-flying cargo planes could help FedEx meet demand for exploding e-commerce.

Image of a self-flying Elroy Air cargo plane approaching a Fed Ex warehouse

Elroy Air's innovative cargo aircraft could help FedEx Express meet logistics demands. Photo courtesy of Elroy Air

Aircraft

Alternative energy

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

One of the first companies to deliver food by drone in the U.S. is expanding to Texas, where residents of Granbury, outside Dallas-Fort Worth, will be able to satisfy their cravings with a drone-dropped meal in about 5 minutes.

Why it matters: Drone delivery, still a novelty in the U.S. because of regulatory limits, could address America's growing demand for instant gratification while making roads safer and less congested.

Driving the news: Flytrex, an Israeli startup already making drone deliveries in North Carolina under a pilot program, is establishing a new outpost in Granbury. 

It's part of an expanded partnership with Dallas-based restaurant chain Brinker International, the parent of Chili's Grill & Bar, Maggiano’s Little Italy and two carryout brands, It’s Just Wings and Maggiano’s Italian Classics.

How it works: Co-founder and CEO Yariv Bash describes Flytrex service as "DoorDash, but with drones."

Customers use the Flytrex app to place their order from the menus of participating restaurants. In Granbury, they're starting with It's Just Wings. 

Flytrex employees, working out of a parking lot, grab the food, clip the bag to a cable and load it into the drone delivery box. It can handle up to 6.6 pounds — enough for a family meal of burgers, fries and beverages, or a mother lode of wings. 

The drone flies autonomously to the destination, which must be within a mile of the takeoff location, while a trained drone operator monitors the flight. 

Upon arrival, the drone hovers about 80 feet off the ground, lowers the bag to the ground via cable, then releases the clip. (Hangry customers never interact directly with the drone.)

Where it stands: Flytrex's expansion into Texas comes on the heels of it receiving a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to expand its service to 10,000 homes across North Carolina.

The company currently operates in three North Carolina communities: Fayetteville, Raeford and Holly Springs. 

Last year, it delivered more than 12,000 items from restaurants and retailers. 

What to watch: The FAA is working on regulations that would permit drones to fly longer distances — beyond the line of sight of the operator, which would clear a major hurdle for more widespread deliveries. 

Dallas

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A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Dallas. Written by Michael Mooney and Tasha Tsiperas.

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Axios Dallas

Look up: Your burrito is arriving by drone

Some Texans will get a drone-dropped meal in 5 minutes.

Image of a young child and his mother, running to greet a meal dropped by a Flytrex drone. 

Flytrex drones deliver food from nearby restaurants within about 3 minutes. Photo courtesy of Flytrex

Drones

National Weather Service meteorologists can now predict minute-by-minute weather conditions for individual arrival and departure routes at the nation's 30 busiest airports — which should translate to fewer delays for travelers.

Why it matters: Better weather data synced with actual flight routes will help air traffic controllers as they direct planes to dodge potentially dangerous storms.

The big picture: When bad weather is approaching an airport, air traffic controllers often hold or reroute flights in the name of safety. 

That's inconvenient for passengers, and can quickly snowball into systemwide delays across the country. 

How it works: Each of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 22 air traffic control centers has a weather unit on site, with meteorologists providing weather information to air traffic controllers making decisions about takeoffs, landings and routing.

The forecast system is accurate, but until now it wasn't synced to show the departure and arrival routes at each airport.

Now, says the FAA, the datasets are combined in one place, providing a more comprehensive and detailed view of thunderstorms, wind shifts, precipitation, icing conditions and turbulent airspace.

The bottom line: With up-to-the-minute data, controllers can make better decisions about where to send aircraft to avoid weather problems.

Summer forecast: Fewer weather delays at the airport

Meteorologists can now predict minute-by-minute weather conditions at the nation's busiest airports.

Radar image of flight traffic and weather near Chicago. 

FAA data shows the effect of weather on flight arrivals (pink) and departures (yellow) in Chicago. Photo courtesy of FAA

Aviation

Extreme weather

A look at the scientific breakthroughs changing the world, explorations in space and in worlds beyond our own and the threats posed to us by our own planet, both out of our control and of our own making.

Science

The job of an airplane pilot may one day involve “flying” multiple aircraft at once without ever leaving the ground, according to the Aerospace Industries Association. 

Why it matters: Aviation is about to undergo a huge transformation. Over the next decade or two, autonomous aircraft will become ubiquitous, taking on industrial jobs that are too difficult for humans and shuttling cargo among logistics hubs. 

Depending on public acceptance, these "roboplanes" could also be ferrying passengers across cities. 

What's happening: The market for self-flying aircraft is expected to grow 25% per year to a total of $325 billion between now and 2040, according to new research by AIA and Avascent, an aviation consultancy.

That includes everything from vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOLs) — which rise like a helicopter and fly like a plane — to small turboprops and regional jets, all the way up to larger cargo and passenger planes.

Dozens of startups have raised money — amounting to about $7 billion so far — via private investors or public SPAC deals to advance their autonomous flight endeavors. 

Players include Boeing-backed Wisk Aero, Xwing, Reliable Robotics and Kitty Hawk. 

Electric VTOL manufacturers like Joby Aviation, Archer and Lilium initially plan to launch air taxi services with human pilots — but one day plan to remove the pilots.

Yes, but: "When we say fully autonomous, it's not as if these planes will have no humans involved," Avascent's Jay Carmel, a co-author of the report, tells Axios. 

"It's important to remember that it's really a shift in how humans are interacting with the plane," he says. "The human is going to be much more of an observer, in a management state."

"There's nothing 'unmanned' about autonomous flight," adds co-author Josh Pavluk.

He projects that as many as 100,000 jobs will be created to support autonomous aviation by 2040, in fields like engineering, software, operations and logistics.

Here's how it's likely to play out: At first, autonomous aircraft will be used for industrial jobs that AIA calls "dull, dirty and dangerous" — fighting forest fires, inspecting infrastructure, surveying crops or providing Wi-Fi hot spots in disaster zones.

Cargo applications — like delivering goods to warehouses and stores — will come next. Small aircraft might carry up to 3,000 pounds, with the potential for larger planes hauling much heavier payloads.

Passenger air taxis will come later, "most likely not arriving at scale until at least well into the next decade," says AIA.

"Public acceptance will play a huge role in this," says Carmel. "Even if the tech will be ready, will the public be comfortable with it?"

Where it stands: Today's aircraft are already heavily automated. As they  perform mundane flying tasks, the pilot is always supervising and retains critical decision-making responsibility.

Over time, pilots are expected to delegate more tasks and decisions to the aircraft, eventually moving from the cockpit to the ground to fly by remote control — first one plane at a time, and then multiple aircraft simultaneously.

The catch: Manufacturers must demonstrate that their automated systems meet the FAA's current safety standards. 

The agency is already thinking about where VTOL air taxis and cargo shuttles might land, though, issuing engineering guidance earlier this month for the design of so-called vertiports.

"It's more of a regulatory issue than a technical issue," says aviation specialist Sergio Cecutta, a partner at SMG Consulting. "We can fly autonomously right now."

The next generation of aircraft will leave pilots on the ground

Pilots will be able to control multiple planes from the ground

Illustration of a pilot uniform standing with no pilot inside it.

Significant updates proposed to the federal government's flagship 5-Star Safety Rating program do nothing to address the higher risk faced by female drivers.

Why it matters: Women face a higher risk than men of being seriously injured or killed in a crash — but most vehicle safety systems are tested using male crash test dummies.

Designing safety technologies to protect "the average male" leaves everyone else more vulnerable, safety advocates say. 

Driving the news: The updates suggested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) lean heavily on new driver-assistance technologies to try to make automobiles safer. 

Institure more stringent testing of NHTSA-recommended technologies and of four new ones: lane-keeping support, pedestrian automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection and blind spot intervention.

Potentially add technologies related to driver distraction, alcohol detection and driver monitoring systems, among others. 

Consider a new crash avoidance rating for driver-assistance technologies that could be displayed on the car's window sticker.

Yes, but: The proposed updates don't address the existing gender gap in vehicle safety testing, says former Rep. Susan Molinari, co-chair of a safety coalition called Verity (Vehicle Equity Rules in Transportation) Now.

“Until we require up-to-date female dummies in all crash tests, as the rule proposes to do for men, the U.S. government is sending a signal that it doesn’t believe women’s lives are as important as men’s,” Molinari said in a statement.

NHTSA acknowledges that women face a higher risk of dying in a crash. 

"Although men consistently represent more than 70 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes, when comparable crashes are analyzed and risk taking differences are accounted for, studies have shown that motor vehicle fatality risk is, on average, 17 percent higher for a female than for a male of the same age," per its newly released National Roadway Safety Strategy. 

Between the lines: Men are riskier drivers, which is why they account for 70% of the overall fatalities. 

But in comparable crashes, women are more likely to die because their bodies differ in terms of size, bone density and muscle structure. They also sit closer to the steering wheel.

The standard crash test dummy is a 50th-percentile male that represents the average U.S. soldier in the 1960s.

A female dummy, added in the early 2000s, represents a 5th-percentile woman — under 5 feet tall and 108 pounds — and thus doesn't consider the other 95% of women.

There are no test dummies available to represent midsize women, but NHTSA uses computer simulation to fill the gap.

The other side: A NHTSA spokesperson says its 5-Star Safety Ratings system — also known as the New Car Assessment Program — has improved safety for all vehicle occupants, and the regulations "appear to have also significantly reduced gender disparity in crash outcomes."

The infrastructure law enacted in 2021 aims to accelerate research into eliminating gender disparities in deaths and injuries. 

Where it stands: NHTSA has a 60-day comment period on the proposed rules. 

What to watch: NHTSA plans to propose a new, more lifelike dummy from Humantics called the THOR-50M. It is also based on the 50th-percentile male.

A 5th-percentile female THOR dummy could come later.

Go deeper: The gender gap in car safety leaves women at risk

Proposed 5-star safety rules give short shrift to women drivers

New technologies aren't tested as widely on female test dummies

Illustration of a road sign with a female icon holding her head

Automobiles

Markets

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Used car prices slip, bucking inflation trend

There was a 0.2% dip in used vehicle prices in February, compared to the prior month.

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