The Future Revealed

Photo courtesy of Freightliner

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I turned 50 in 2016. I suppose that’s the first thing that comes to mind when I look back on the year past… I mean, for me personally, that was a pretty big deal. In the grand scheme of things, it was also a definitive year in many ways. The consensus seems to be that it was a horrible year – although many people I know look upon it as divide in the sand. To them, the year marks a turning point and they are excited and optimistic looking ahead into 2017. Which means that in many ways, the final chapter on 2016 hasn’t been written yet, and won’t be some time.

Narrowing the focus, and looking at 2016 through my Trucking Lens, it seems that this was a year that confirmed that a new wave of technology is, in fact, going to sweep through the North American trucking industry. And this wave of newness will be more sweeping, and happen quicker than most American Truckers are prepared for.

Two events during the course of the year convince me of this notion:

The first happened early in the year, when I flew to Dusseldorf, Germany to see Daimler Trucks unveil its Highway Pilot Connect truck platooning technology. Of equal importance was the fact that the Daimler launch dovetailed with a larger demonstration event in which multiple European truck OEMs ran multi-truck platoons into Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to demonstrate the reliability of their own platooning capabilities.

Industry experts, notably Peloton, have been working on platooning technology for some time now, which is essentially using modern vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems and integrated safety systems to run trucks safely in convoy formations. Doing so offers impressive fuel economy boosts that engineers say are simply beyond any vehicle design or powertrain enhancements available today.

But what …Read the rest of this story

Source:: http://www.truckinginfo.com/blog/truck-tech/story/2016/12/the-future-revealed.aspx