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AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS * USA: Driverless convoy
* New York - Will truckers lose out to software?
-- Sleepiness and stress are perennial risks for the long distance lorry driver, and accidents are sadly too frequent. However, a radical new driverless truck being trialled by Daimler may offer a solution... Using a combination of GPS, radar and video cameras, the Freightliner Inspiration can drive by itself on open stretches of road, freeing a driver to take breaks, check his emails and even watch DVDs... The catch is that a qualified person must remain in front of the wheel at all times so they can take control if something goes wrong... However, proponents say that the technology, once perfected, will reduce accidents by lessening the chance of human error, boost productivity and cut emissions...
(Photo: The dashboard showing that the vehicle is in autonomous mode)
... It is perhaps ironic that fully driverless vehicles are already being used in low-speed, controlled environments... Rio Tinto, for instance, operates over 50 self-drive trucks at its mines in Pilbara, Australia... Where things get tricky is moving these vehicles onto public roads, with other vehicles and pedestrians... Daimler's truck, for example, only works on freeways, and a human must take over when it reaches city streets - a far more "complicated traffic environment", according to the company... He gives the example of a fully self-driving truck, which unexpectedly hits an object that has fallen onto a highway and loses control... The truck may at this point have to make a choice: veer to the right onto a walkway, where a mother and her children are walking and would be killed; or to the left where three elderly people are crossing the road...
... Perhaps not surprisingly only two US states - Nevada and California - have granted licences for the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads - and both require 'safety' drivers to be present... Almost every automaker is now piloting or using forms of autonomous driving technology - and the market for hardware and software could be worth $40-$60m by 2030... Still, jumping further into the future, what specifically would the impact be if trucks like Daimler's become ubiquitous - and drivers became mere accessories? ... According to the American Trucker Association, in the US alone, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the trucking industry who don't operate vehicles...
... That's a whopping 8.7 million trucking-related jobs that could face some form of displacement... There could be upsides too, though, not least in terms of safety. In 2012, 330,000 large trucks were involved in crashes in the US, killing nearly 4,000 people, the majority of them caused by driver error... However, according to one study, driverless trucks could in future reduce collisions by more than 70%, as they'll drive more slowly and react to challenging environments, generally, in the safest way... Another plus is that autonomous drivers could help tackle skills shortages... According to the American Trucking Associations, the US trucking industry could see a shortfall of some 240,000 qualified drivers by 2022... While at the moment this is just speculation, the mass production of self-driving trucks seems inevitable - and the results will be hard to ignore...
N.Y., USA - BBC News (UK), by Daniel Thomas - 26 May 2015
Labels: autonomous trucks
posted by Unknown @ 10:49 AM
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