Commentary: Let’s Look More Closely at Automation in Trucking
Rolf Lockwood
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Rolf Lockwood
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Escape is impossible. The word “autonomous” is everywhere I look, and if I believed the hype in the mainstream press, I’d think that human control of cars and trucks will soon be a thing of the past.
Yes indeed, some forms of autonomous driving will find their way into trucking before long. Who knows when? Not me, but it won’t be tomorrow for the mainstream freight business.
At the user level, I fear that the whole autonomous phenomenon is poorly understood, and in a conversation over dinner recently, I found that a veteran OEM engineer agrees with me. First off, in only very rare circumstances are we talking about actual full autonomy – that is, with no driver present. It is already happening in mines and in some agricultural applications, though very slowly, and it’s likely to appear in container ports on very proscribed routes fairly soon.
Everywhere else, we’re talking “semi-autonomous,” meaning a driver is in there – or even two as presently required in some jurisdictions. Jobs will not be lost any time soon.
The technology component is relatively easy, but not the social and regulatory sides of it all. That challenge takes “complex” to new heights.
Last-mile deliveries are a different story, and there we already see the start of jobs being lost to drones. But that’s a different kettle of techno-fish.
My engineer friend and I also got to talking about platooning. Both of us registered a little skepticism there too. At best I think we’ll see two-truck platoons in the nearish future – but not as near as I once thought we would. I’m not sure the benefits are sufficiently large to justify the expense and the hassle, though a “confidence report” from the North American Council on Freight Efficiency last year begs to differ.
A two-truck platoon would …Read the rest of this story
