In a world-first, dozens of autonomous trucks from some of the biggest truck manufacturers in the world just joined together and drove themselves to the Netherlands.
Set up by the Dutch government, the European Truck Platooning Challenge was taken up by Volvo, Daimler, DAF Trucks, IVECO, Scania, and MAN. The manufacturers all contributed semi-autonomous trucks which took advantage of their sensors and wireless connection to each other to efficiently platoon from all over Europe to meet up in Rotterdam.
Starting from as far away as Stockholm (a journey of about 1,000 miles), trucks bearing slogans like “The Future Is Ahead Of You” made the journey in twos, threes, and fours before joining together for the last leg of the event. Since it didn’t drive a straight route there, a Scania truck had the longest route with over 2,000 miles and crossed four national borders.
Platooning is when two or more trucks join up to allow the follow trucks more fuel efficiency. It has the added bonus of reducing the amount of space on a highway that the trucks take up. Platooning can be very dangerous for manually driven trucks as the space between the vehicles is too small to be safe, but truck manufacturers claim that autonomous trucks which are wirelessly connected to each other have an instantaneous reaction time. When the lead truck brakes, the follow truck brakes at the same time. The same is true for acceleration, so the trucks are always traveling the same speed.
The challenge was issued by the Netherlands and took place in Europe, but will have a very real impact here in the United States. According to Navistar International Corp., platooning with semi-autonomous trucks is only a few years away.
“I think realistically, we’re four to five years out before we could see platooning on [U.S.] highways,” said Darren Gosbee, director of engineering at Navistar. “The thing about platooning is it’s like having a cell phone, it’s only when everyone else has one that other trucks can enter and exit the platoon.”
Source: qz, engadget, gizmodo, arstechnica, slashgear, dailymail, computerworld
Image source: European Truck Platooning Challenge
It will be great for the mega carriers. But another quality job will go away from the humans who need the pay to feed their family.
Sounds great in theory,however, all it takes is one hacker to create all kinds of mayhem!!
No jobs will be lost since the trucks still need a driver behind the wheel to take over at the end. Even autonomous trucks require a human behind the wheel to get the truck to the highway, and off. Truck drivers will always be needed, it’s just that their jobs will continue to chance as technology comes into play. eventually it will be like a conductor on a train, you won’t need to drive the truck, but you still need to be present, no computer can do everything.
This technology is similar to the Google cars. They had several accidents and required the human to take over nearly 300 times. With a semi that is 100 times harder to drive and 500 times more dangerous, I think it will be a while.
What about the first accident their in..? Better hope noone is killed or seriously hurt. I see it happening. That should be the end of that assinine technology!! Nothing but a joke and another reason to stop paying people!
Wouldn’t “semi autonomous” mean there’s a driver on board? I’ll bet it will be a way to make otr drivers’ pay even LOWER.
Only if the drivers allow it, you don’t see airline pilots taking cuts in pay
With ELogs, speed limiters, and nanny cams becoming “required” equipment to operate a truck, plus all the headaches of drivers being tagged as having sleep apnea or being at risk for it, then having to jump through hoops to keep their Med cards, I see autonomous trucks as the final nail in the coffin on the trucking industry as we know it.
It may not replace all drivers right away, but in the “name of safety”, I can see the FMCSA pushing for these driverless trucks and the big mega carriers stepping up to help make it a reality.
They don’t care about the millions of men and women this would put out of work either, so get ready, five years isn’t that long really.
Stupid is all i can say. A lot more unemployment more accidents from non yielding cars coming down ramps and long string of robot trucs like a train on the highway. It is also to easy for some geek nut to hack in to the computer system and cause big problems.
Exactly people don’t yeild when entering the highway now. So what will happen when they squeeze in-between because they will try
Maybe swift will adopt this and reduce accidents and be more safety conscious of others around them
Guys, quit getting your panties all wadded up. Does anyone have any idea what the cost will be for one of these trucks? What carrier in their right mind would order several of these, just to see what kind of cost effectiveness they will have. I believe it will be many many years before we see these on U.S. soil.
Do you have any idea what it costs companies to employ Drivers ?
At what speed do you observe the evolution of technology moving ?
Autonomous Trucks will be common, much sooner than you think.
They can drive but not deliver and who fuels them who checks oil want about dot checks or scales or slippery roads .this would be nice for the coast to coast drivers they would be able to sleep most of the way .
It’s not a big jump to have employees fuel the trucks also there are already sensors available to let you know when a fluid is low.
We Trucker have to wake up. There are a lot of people in the world including this country, who would love to see the end of the truck driver.
Also.. They are already working on having robotic trucks back into the dock.
“The thing about platooning is it’s like having a cell phone, it’s only when everyone else has one that other trucks can enter and exit the platoon.” So what happens when you get a dropped call?
Don’t you know we can trust technology? Hey wait a minute I think my phone might have another crash… oh no, it’s just another bad connection or maybe it’s just my internet having another glitch. I don’t know, maybe cause it’s cloudy or rainy. Wait a minute, my GPS stopped working…hold on, shoot I just missed that turn. Oh my gosh! Oh well I guess we can trust technology why not?… all the people that bribe the goverments and make the money off of it do.
Coincides nicely with my exit of the business. I feel for the 20-somethings who thought they had a career planned out but are being replaced by 22-year old hackers playing it like its a game. The bottom line you need to be able the same quality no matter where you are
I assume they were all empty. This will take rail jobs and create rail jobs. Thousands of trailers are always stuck on the west coast with no load east. So platoon them or rail them? They still need to be organized to roll and imagine a convoy rolling into a Chicago rail hub. The platoon would have to stage at a yard far from any metro at both ends.
My question is, when all of the humans are replaced by machines, who are these companies going to sell their products to? If we all are unemployed because technology made us obsolete, then who will have money to buy anything that the robots make????
There is an author and activist who wrote about the exact concern you are bringing up. Conrad Schmidt is his name and the book is called, “Workers of the World Relax” It’s hard to come by though.
That is where specialism comes in. We won’t have to work. We will all be getting a paycheck.
I am glad I retired from the road.
@Rutro . It won’t cost that much because whenever the government wants the mega to do something they offer some kind of monetary incentive/rebate to them and the megas bite it every f****** time. They use our tax dollars to put the people out of business everytime.
4 wheelers don’t yield now coming onto the highway, can’t wait to see a 4 wheeler waiting for 6 platooning trucks to drive by, that will be funny. Someone trying to catch their exit and 4 to 8 trucks platooning, no way to catch their exit now, that will also be funny.
I don’t know about you but I don’t find it very appealing to be looking at the a$$ end of a trailer for hours on end.
I love technology but this is somewhat stupid technology to save a couple gallons here and there instead of figuring out ways to eliminate fossil fuel all together.
Marijuana can be made into fuel at a much cheaper price so platooning wouldn’t be necessary. Solar could be used during the day so platooning wouldn’t be necessary also.
Whatever.
Platooning will have to happen only on wide open roads, not in cities, and they will have to use the center lanes, in the case of a two lane road, they will have to move over to the left lane at on/off ramps.
come on people… stop complaining and see the advantage of the whole thing to you as a driver. No drivers will loose their jobs because you still need to get the truck to the highway and off.
So, basically the driver will be there to do the hard part. Drive it through the small roads, to and from customers, fueling, bad weather, strapping, tarping etc. Since we would be needed and be in control where and when most accidents occur, what real value will we get from them. We get paid less while the computer does the easy stuff.
They will have the convoys of robots to use the left lane.
Why are we so quick to blow this off.
I am not blowing it off. I am opposing it. Why, you ask? Because I have a mortgage, electric bill, and food budget that the jerks thinking this stuff up aren’t gonna pay for me.
Marijuana will only give us ethanal. Ethanal is less combustible then gasoline which is less combustible then diesel. The less combustible the more you have to burn to get the power needed.
Diesel fuel contains mostly hydrocarbon molecules that have on average 12 or so carbon atoms, while gasoline contains hydrocarbons that contain on average 8 or so carbon atoms. The heavier, bigger molecules in diesel fuel means it evaporates more slowly at ambient conditions, requires more heating (i.e. more compression) before it spontaneously ignites.
These semi-autonomous trucks still require a person in the cab to monitor the situation. Mercedes has been pioneering this, and the driver is only required in situations where there is too much random things happening or in emergency situations.
Driving on the highway is the easy part. That last mile to the loading dock is going to be very difficult for them to overcome.
See a couple things wrong with it. First of all, “platooning” just like believe it or not being in a convoy, is currently illegal in the United States.
Secondly, even if all trucks are of the same weight and model, they will never be identical. Meaning that each truck will have a different load on it so you would have a weight variance… Tire condition and pressure… Etc. road condition would also be another factor.
My point is, you put two or more trucks dangerously close to each other even though they are connected wirelessly, if the first truck or the third truck for that matter slams on its brakes, even if all trucks react similarly… There’s no guarantee that a collision will be avoided.
Then there’s this thing about how will the public react to the road train? And imagine four or five trucks “platooning” together in the rain and the road spray that will become of it and trying to pass all those trucks.
One final point… Unless the trucks are fully autonomous… Each truck will have a human in it. Humans have biological needs… So is the “platoon” going to break off because truck #3 needs to break? Just saying.
There is only a human in the truck now. This is the trial and error stage.
Trucks will be in the left lane.
Convoys are illegal because when we had a convoy we would not let 4 wheelers in.
The geek squad is working on all obstacles. Both what we can think of & what we are not thinking of.
Yeah driving on the highway is the easy part but the last mile… what are they gonna pay you to do the last mile? Certainly not enough to make a living. This is serious. Reminds me of the movie wall-e. Truck driving days are numbered.
This is much ado about nothing. I dispatch for a mega carrier. I can’t imagine trying to get shippers to release several trucks at the same time. Most loads are late before we can get away from the docks, and other than the local roads to the interstates we rarely have two trucks going the same route within the same hour. Add in log variations, driver availability, it would be a nightmare to try and co ordinate two trucks going the same route. Think about it, you people that drive for one of the big 10….how often do you run down the road with one of your own kind for any distance? I know when I was driving, it was almost never.
Don’t lose any sleep on this one.
The comments they made in the article, referring to getting all trucks equipped so they can enter and exit the platoon, indicate that the designers don’t envision it that way. It won’t be a platoon made up of trucks all from the same company on the same run. The platoons will be made up of groups of trucks from different companies all going the same way at the same time. Trucks will be joining and departing a platoon all the time. So a platoon will likely vary in the number of trucks, and even who had the lead truck all the time. There might be a recognizable platoon travel 2000 miles, and be made up of none of the original members when it gets to the other end. I’d maybe load in Chicago, hop on I-80 headed west, and fall in to be the last truck in the next platoon that passes me. If I’m thinking about it like they see it, it’ll be up to the driver if he even wants to join any particular platoon, or even any platoon at all. And you better trust the front guy, because he’ll be driving them all, indirectly. In that scenario, would the Melton driver up front be responsible legally for the TMC and Schneider trucks behind him. This whole idea has way more “what ifs” in it than the designers can imagine. Just getting the trucks to do it will b ed the easy part
Who said anything about the same carrier running together. If both Swift and JB Hunt are going to save money running together; why would they care. In the end.. They are still making money. Not to mention; all the carriers will be concerned about is the point A to B, not the route. That will all be the robot & what other robots it’ll convoy with.
I am agreeing with you Edward
How fast will the trucks react when the lead truck is cut off by a 4-wheeler? Are the trucks capable of sensing poor road conditions and reducing spped accordingly? Assuming this is where the ‘human’ driver takes over? Definitely not looking forward to this technology…
Don’t other things exist besides brakes that sometimes reduce a truck’s speed, some of which can do so even faster than brakes are capable of?
These trucks will be filled with law suits, also the weather we that drive know how that is. I hope when they kill a few people that lawyers sue the azzez off of them to the point of oblivion… Also when no one is working due to these contraptions, let’s see how well they do…LMAO
The future is here. This will only work when they create separate lanes of road ways for trucks only….like the old “Rail Roads” of the mid 1800’s…..wonder if that will ever happen……oh see truckersreports article below: “Will Free Truck-Only Lanes Become A Reality?”. The future is here!
It’s so funny. Our corporate C.O.O at the company I work for just said it’ll never happen. I hope none of us has to do this on a mountain pass. Good luck all, stay safe.
I keep asking and still haven’t received any answer is with these self-driving vehicles, where is the legal liability? When damage or injury is caused, who will be held responsible? It seems to me it will be hard to make the driver responsible, he isn’t in control of the vehicle. How about the software engineers or equipment manufacturers. How about having a system hacked? A hacker taking control of 80,000 pounds going down the road at 65 MPH. Will the driver have the overriding ability to disconnect a system if that happens? Lots and Lots of essential unanswered questions before this can work here in the U.S, to my thinking. Doesn’t mean that I don’t think it will happen, but I am very curious how these issues get decided.
You already know the answer to your question. The COMPUTER is always right. It will never be the robot’s fault, in the event of an accident.
So if one truck crashes they all crash.and I wonder how they do in road construction. Does the computer see the man holding the flag?
These idiots aren’t going to give up until “truck driver” isn’t a real job anymore…either that or when people start getting pinged off left right and center by their shortsightedness. Last time I checked no technology in this world is 100% reliable 100% of the time. So what happens when you get a sensor glitch in one truck and next thing you know there’s fifteen trucks mangled to pieces on a piece of land that until that moment had a house on it with a family living in it. Not only that but the “drivers” that monitor the semi-autonomous ones won’t be worth a flying fuck because even for all that seat time they’ll be racking up they won’t have a single shred of real-world knowledge on how a truck works or handles because THEY WONT BE REQUIRED TO. And what if the trick writes itself off or takes out a family…who’s responsible? Surely not the driver, he wasn’t driving the truck because the truck can drive itself. So who gets the lawsuit? Truck manufacturer? Company? Someone always has to pay but nobody will be legally liable and a god damned robot truck sure doesn’t have a lawyer or bank account…ugh
Way I see it if “tech support” is such a huge industry there’s gotta be a good reason, and since they work with things like these (computers, sensors, etc, etc. that tells me there’s a lot of that kind of stuff breaking. Hell, EGR valves are just finally becoming semi-reliable after how many years? Garages chasing sensor glitches for months before they find it and the whole time the truck in question runs like the shit of shit. Now give that imperfect technology control of a 100,000lb missile o’ death, hook up with fourteen more and run down the road mere feet from the others…brakes out of adjustment, a faulty valve, a sudden patch of black ice, Mr. Last Second Exit From The Hammer Lane Across Four (or more) Lanes of Traffic…tit’s just a fucking disaster waiting to happen. How do they know how heavy they are? Does someone program it? What if he screwed up entering the numbers and didn’t notice…nope, no thanks. Automatics STILL don’t have a clue when to shift, so if they can’t make the technology perfectly reliable 100% of the time to the point they put their little tech-asses out of jobs, their technology doesn’t meet the skill requirements, no matter how much money you throw at it. And if they do release them with imperfect tech (which of course they will because it’s all about the bottom dollar) then they’re not proving anything. Well, other than silencing the truck drivers the rest of the way like we all know they’re dying to do. And when people start dying because of these things I hope they actually man up and open their eyes instead of just make excuses and empty promises.
I HOPE anyway, though I seriously doubt it
If mechanical issues arise. The robot simply pull over and shut down. Just like when our trucks now sense an issue. Well except the pulling over part.
Mechanical issues causing an accident. That will simply Fall on the owner. There will still be prevention maintenance
hmmm 80,000 lbs x 4 or 5 trucks in a platoon. Cars wont yield now. Seems like a no brainer to me.
They already did this in Europe. There were no mass chaos accidents. Platooning does not mean all the trucks have to be from the same company, or the same weight, any two trucks on the same road can do this they have sensors to communicate instantaineously and make it happen safely. When someone cuts off an autonimous truck it will do exactly what a driver would do but faster and without getting angry. It does not have to turn it’s head to see if there is some other vehicle in the hammer lane before merging. It’s pride cannot stop it from slowing down to accomodate merging traffic. Every trucker association in America will oppose this in the name of jobs and probably delay it for a while but money talks and if it’s cheaper to go this route it will become the norm eventually. Nobody is out to get truckers, nobody is trying to silence you. The world moved freight before truck drivers and will move freight after them. That doesn’t mean you cant make a living but, hello! How many of you take home 300k per year anymore? Deregulation? Things will always change. Doesn’t mean your value doesn’t exist anymore, it means you have to change too. And this will probably be a long time coming. Good luck to all of you.
10-4 Jake. You said it Man. Before us; it was the wagon train. A man with a team of horses, pulling a wagon of goods.
There was no mass confusion because it was a very controlled and monitored situation at this point. They likely had several people monitoring and maintaining each platoon. They are still a long way from autonomous every day use. And sometime between the way it is, and the way they want it to be, we’ll see that mass chaos and accidents.
I couldn’t care less what Europe does. The whole continent is smaller than the US, nothing is on the same scale. As far as braking and acceleration goes, there will aways be lag time from front to back. How do you account for differences in horsepower, gears, tire size and gross weight? What happens when there is a mechanical or, heaven forbid, an electrical failure? I never thought I’d live to see the day when stupid rules the world…
No one will lose their jobs till they start putting freight in the transporter room.
If companies utilize this technology to their advantage to replace drivers and lower pay will truckers finally admit that criticizing others for wanting more money was wrong? Also will drivers finally get it thru their heads that we are not appointed by a higher power to drive and that we can be replaced?
There will need to be such expensive infrastructure improvements before all that can happen, that it’ll never happen. Extra dedicated truck lanes, some system for keeping roads clean and dry all the time, ways to keep other vehicles from causing issues the trucks can’t react to, places big enough for entire convoys to autonomously park in the event of some failure. Heck, if they did all of that now, our accident rates would drop to the point there would be no way those trucks would pay for themselves anyway. A well trained, properly rested, alert driver will always out think and out perform those machines. Especially if we had the luxury of driving on the types of roads those things will need. I know they won’t need all those changes to be tested. But for long term, real world use they will.
Imagine a self driven gas tanker going down the road with 8000 gallons of gas .
It not the autonomous part or the auto pilot feature that bugs me. It’s the people in the office of trucking companies behind the computers that I’m concerned with. By installing an autopilot or autodrive system in the trucks. Who’s to say that a dispatcher or i.t. person for the trucking company. Hacks the autonomous truck while it’s parked and the drivers asleep. With the intentions of operating the truck remotely to get the load there sooner. Not caring or knowing what is around the truck. Or who they will hurt or kill. What preventive measures is being taken before hand. To make sure that the autonomous computer for the autodrive mode. Is kept seperate from the ecu. And has no way of being linked to any communications equipment. And equipped with a emergency stop button. That is directly wired to to main power supply for the autonomous computer. Before anyone says that won’t happen. Greed and fear are 2 very powerful emotions things in a person. And will make them do anything. I want to make absolutely for certain that when the autonomous truck is stopped. It remains stopped. And when it is moving. It remains completely under the control of the human driver that is behind the wheel. And at no time can anyone gain control of it remotely.
And because of public safety. I think a federal law needs to be past ahead of time. That if an autonomous commercial motor vehicle is being operated remotely. Then the individual operating remotely is automatically convicted of wreckless endanger ment of a commercial motor vehicle. And is sentence to no less the 20 years in prison.
There will always be a human in the truck. As close as it may seem, all vehicles on the highway will need to be able to communicate with each other, including the 4 wheelers before this would go mainstream.
Here’s how it’s going to be with autonomous trucks. They will be bought by manufacturers of goods. Trucking companies will start losing contracts and freight. Then one by one trucking companies will start closing due to the autonomous trucks. Then one truck shop after another will close. Truck dealer will start closing due to the lack of sales. The autonomous truck will be sold direct from the manufacturer. Then the truck stops will start closing. Along with truck washes. Tire shops will start closing. That’s just to name a few of the businesses trucking supports. 95% of the dot officers will be out outta work. The fmcsa will be dramatically down sized. The U.S.. Dot in Washington dc will be down sized. This will come due to the autonomous truck. I estimate over 80 million jobs will be lost in America due to the autonomous truck. A good question to the every country leader in the world. If that many jobs are lost here in America.Where are you going to get the money to run the country on? Robots don’t need money. And the people in your country won’t any money.
It’ll all be ok. I believe the drivers will be payed a lot more because your going to have to know how to run and take care of all that technology. It’s going to take more education and skill then you think. Some of you are just afraid of change. Don’t worry you’ll still have your old fashion manual trucks around for many years to come. People in cars will have to learn about the new systems too. Remember when you old school drivers feared the females taking all yor jobs? It wasn’t too long ago you all feared the auto transmisions and elogs too.
My final comment on all of this is why? Why are they messing with roads at all? So they want freight moved cheaply and with less labor and less accidents. The infra structure improvements that will be needed to make this a safe reality make using roads silly. Be better to just have “freight pods” operating on elevated rails independent of roads. Be easier to make that an all weather system. Also wouldn’t have to worry about Jimmy in his fast and furious car being stupid. And after the system was up and working, passenger pods could be added for more profit. Be much easier to build pylons every so often to support the rails than to grade roadbeds everywhere. This is just going to be much money wasted for what will likely end up being a band-aid transitional situation anyway. If truck drivers are at the end of the road as far as freight hauling goes then it’s time for the freight to leave the road altogether.