An industry trade group is proposing a dedicated autonomous truck route stretching from Mexico to Canada. The proposal would allow for cross-border trade without needed passports, visas, or even drivers.
Proposed by the Central North American Trade Corridor Association, the goal is to set up an autonomous vehicle corridor that runs along Route 83 from Mexico through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota before ending in Manitoba, Canada. The CNATCA is based in North Dakota, and one of the main reasons behind the proposal is to provide new ways to ship North Dakota’s oil where it needs to go.
“One of the challenges we have here in North Dakota is that we have a lot of energy production going on right now, but not enough pipelines to carry the oil from North Dakota to its destination point,” said Marlo Anderson of the CNATCA.
Following Freightliner’s unveiling of the first street legal autonomous truck in the US, concerns have been raised over the safety of autonomous trucks driving on roads that are also used by the general motoring public. The CNATCA hopes that by having dedicated autonomous-friendly roadways, the regulatory barriers for using autonomous vehicles on a large scale will come down.
The CNATCA has plenty to battle against before this dream of theirs becomes a reality. In order for the corridor to allow driverless trucks, Canada, the United States, Mexico, and every individual state that the corridor passes through would have to make autonomous trucks legal. A tall task considering the only state in the U.S. in which autonomous trucks are currently legal on public highways is Nevada where, unfortunately for the CNATCA, Route 83 does not run.
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Source: ttnews, cnatca, chron, popularmechanics, globalconstructionreview
Image Source: theautonet
ScottSr says
Im all for keeping American roads for Americans ( yes I really hate NAFTA ) but there is something like this called a TRAIN! Aside from that I am for making trucks semi-autonomous but taking Drivers completely out is just stupid up until we have truly reliable computers. This will never pass and if it does Ill surrender my CDL for good!
Ryan says
This won’t happen anytime soon even if it were approved today. If it takes road crews two years to repave a 5mi section of road, I’d hate to imagine how long Mexico to Canada would take.
Robert says
Mexico would get done in record time….it would take 25 years to clean up the trash left behind. Canada is French so they would consider it an insult to be asked to help at all.
susan ratkovcic says
Challenge enough with roadkill,small towns,immigration checkpoints, flooding on heavy rain storms. US 83 is not the Ideal routing for this pipedream.
susan ratkovcic says
Routing a driverless semi on Route US 83 has multiple challenges. Roadkill galore,custom checkpoints,flooding on heavy rainfall,small towns. Single laned for more consideration,such as twist,turns,centrifugal force, truck routing around some towns off US83 mandatory. Fueling,servicing, you will aways need humans to react on a blink of eye. Not the ideal direct route for North America driverless system.
Douglas Kirk says
So the f-word has built a driverless truck. Has anyone considered how it will be able to park itself? What about flat tires? Is it also capable of fueling itself? Can it hook up to a trailer without human help? Will it be able to function in severe weather? How does it decide where to go? Do you really think it could find its way from Winnipeg to Laredo? I think somebody is having a really bad nightmare here. Or maybe this is another thinly disguised attempt by our wonderful government to destroy the transportation system.
sudon't says
Think of it as a trainee. You put it on the big road, and point it in the right direction. But instead of the trainee waking up the real driver for the last mile, some local guy is going to take over the wheel when the truck gets to it’s terminal.
Brian White says
This has got to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. First, haven’t these people ever heard of that marvelous contraption developed in the industrial revolution called a TRAIN? Why don’t they propose something like a rail line with as few stops as possible between Canada, Eh? and Mexico? At least that would create jobs, instead of eliminate jobs.
Second, there is no way every govt jurisdiction along that proposed route would approve anything like what they are suggesting. The end result: big, centralized, iron-fisted federal corrupt-o-crats would have to force it on everything and everyone from one end of it to the other.
Bob says
Reinventing the wheel. We basically have had this system for over 150 years. The highway is iron rails. Bet you could run two sets of rails border to border for about one 20th of the cost. This country has it’s head up it’s ass.
Joe says
Actually, its the Central North American Trade Corridor Association that has its head up its ass, not “this country”.
Marlo Anderson says
Since there is no new infrastructure being built, just using a road that is already there, the costs of this project are minimal.
sudon't says
Here’s the thing: The government is mandating updated tank cars in light of the recent accidents, and they’re not getting their pipeline. That’s gonna cost the rail and oil industries billions. Now, if they can get the tax-payer to build them a brand-new road for free, and they hire carriers who will foot the bill for these autonomous trucks, all they have to do is build the racks to fill the tanks. Cha-ching!
deke says
You can’t use us83 that’s one of the few good north south over height corridors in the entire usa, meaning it’s got massive oversize traffic –the kind of stuff which would confuse the hell out of those computers.
sudon't says
Oh, they’re not going to use 83. They’re gonna build a brand new road right next to it.
frankie says
These people are out of there gourds. I mean really? And that it will be hauling crewed. BABOOM!!Good luck with that pipe dream. LOL
sudon't says
We have tons of desperately needed infrastructure repair to do, but yeah, let’s build a whole new road just for the use of corporations! As a bonus, it solves the driver shortage without making a single concession to drivers. Win-win, baby!
Infosaur says
I keep looking at the picture of that concept truck and thinking, if he hit something right now at that angle he’d slide out from under the seatbelt and his neck would snap from not being in line with the headrest.
But what do I know, I’m just a dumb trucker.
(I also shudder when I see passengers put their feet on the dashboard. Sure I did it when I was little, but back then they didn’t mount high explosives in the car in the name of “safety!!”)