Commentary: The Heady Pace of Technology
Deborah Lockridge
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Deborah Lockridge
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As I write this at the end of September, it’s been a dizzying month of technology advances. We’re talking a stream of amazing stuff straight out of a science fiction story.
The IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Germany, for instance, highlighted what in Europe they call “digitization,” along with electric mobility and urban logistics, under the banner of “New Mobility World Logistics.” There were electric vans and autonomous trucks. Heads-up windshield displays with virtual side-view mirrors. Systems that can back up a truck to the dock without a driver at the wheel. Concept urban vehicles with delivery drones and robots and self-loading systems. (We’ll have more on what we saw at IAA in next month’s issue.)
On the plane trip home, I read a column in the International New York Times suggesting that presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton talk in their first debate about what they’re going to do about self-driving trucks.
Then Reuters published an article about Uber’s plans to transform the trucking industry, on the heels of its purchase of autonomous truck tech startup Otto. And UPS staged a test using a drone to deliver medication in a hard-to-reach location.
This is all after the Department of Transportation published its first set of guidelines for the development and regulation of autonomous vehicles.
Navistar and Volvo both unveiled their SuperTruck concept trucks, achieving 12 and 13 mpg. The North American Council on Freight Efficiency released a report on two-truck platooning’s potential for fuel savings.
And it’s not just technology on the truck itself. The TMW/PeopleNet In.Sight conference highlighted how information technology, telematics, the Internet of Things and Big Data can transform the way the transportation industry works, keep the driver connected, and help fleets make better decisions both in real time and for long term strategies.
At FTR’s annual conference, along …Read the rest of this story
