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DETROIT — A U.S. investigation into Teslas operating on partially automated driving systems that have crashed into parked emergency vehicles has moved a step closer to a recall.

For the past two years, Pavan Pidugu, chief technology officer for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, has quietly been working behind the scenes to conduct a sweeping transformation of many of the agency’s admittedly decades-old technology systems.

The Federal Highway Administration on June 9 released the blueprint for states to follow to develop the 500,000 charging stations that are key to the Biden administration’s goal of switching Americans from gasoline- to electric-powered vehicles.

The U.S. Department of Energy is pushing itself, academia and industry to come up with ways to make and distribute clean hydrogen at a price low enough to boost it into a starring role as the primary alternative fuel of the future.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, while opening an annual meeting, revealed that developing hydrogen as a fuel source is a major federal priority, as DOE issued an $8 billion hydrogen hub funding notice.

Fleet operators and others in New York are being surveyed in a new website launched by Gov. Kathy Hochul to help the state submit a plan by Aug. 1 to gain federal electric vehicle infrastructure funds.

A top Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration official told safety executives attending a commercial vehicle safety conference that a proposed rulemaking for fully automated heavy trucks is targeted for later this year.

California regulators on June 2 gave a robotic taxi service the green light to begin charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco, a first in a state where dozens of companies have been trying to train vehicles to steer themselves on increasingly congested roads.

With billions of dollars in new congressional funding available for transportation regulatory agencies to spend on safety initiatives, several high-level federal officials said leaders must take a hard look at how that money is being spent, and whether there are opportunities to take new approaches to improve highway safety.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — San Pedro Bay ports charge $10 per container for transport that isn’t by a zero-emission truck, but an environmental group wants to combine a higher fee with incentives to accelerate adoption of cleaner trucks.