driverless trucks when?

What interests me is how soon will they phase out diesel engines with some other alternative. And what will they replace them with, as I can't imagine an electric 18-wheeler. But eventually this is going to happen, unless the economic collapse that other posters mentioned happens first.[/QUOTE]

Already done, LNG tractors that start diesel been here awhile. Diesel / electric locomotive been here since the 50's.
Hydrogen cars around the corner. Just waiting on fueling network, it will be added to J's LNG stations in the future.

 

Driverless trucks are not far off at all, here's a car that can drive around a track at race speed without driver intervention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc5JED8TgwI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Already done, LNG tractors that start diesel been here awhile. Diesel / electric locomotive been here since the 50's.
Hydrogen cars around the corner. Just waiting on fueling network, it will be added to J's LNG stations in the future.[/QUOTE]

Diesel electric seems like an ideal choice for an 18 wheeler. Diesel powered generator with traction motors on the drive axles, Talk about monster torque.

 

A few people here have been caught running diesel engines on cooking oil, a dash of mentilated spirits and they run fine and are totally green, leads me to think if governments weren't so afraid to lose their tax revenue from oil we'd have envoinmentally friendly engines long ago without the need for radical design changes, seems to me they are waiting for a fuel or energy source they can tax us on!

 

Ok, I may not know much about driverless trucks and how they work, but I think, for an OTR type 18 wheeler or even a dedicated one, would not work. It would have to be local, very local, such as mines and container yards. Yeah, you can put a car at race speeds around a track w/o a driver intervention. BUT, think about it, an 18 wheeler, that has a dedicated or OTR route, would be WAY more difficult to operate the correct way. Not only do you have to worry about it on interstates and highways, but what about in the small towns and how you have to make certain turns. Also, you would need someone on the truck at least, because if you think about it, (idk how many of you actually do but) you're supposed to do pre-trip inspections, post-trip inspections, and in-route inspections.

Would you really trust a computer to control a vehicle like this? Think about if something shorts out or or something malfunctions, your family and friends are driving on the same road as these things now, would really trust it?! I know some 4-wheelers are bad drivers and some so called professional drivers dont drive so professional, but you can report bad drivers. You could probably report a driverless truck but it would be more than just firing a driver, they would have to completely go through the whole truck to figure out what was wrong.

And like others have said, with 9/11 and thinking of terroists, some of these trucks out on the road are carrying some very deadly chemicals, some are carrying military weapons, would you really want to chance having one of these be hacked or crash? I personally, would never trust a driverless truck, I would rather give a rookie a brand new peterbilt or kenworth, than to buy a driverless truck and trust it with merchandise, or any other payloads!