The Advantages & Limitations of Self Driving Trucks

Anyone who watched “Back to The Future” as a child will have expected to be living in a world of flying cars by now, but it seems that the future of transport has taken a different turn.

Now, in addition to electric vehicles, we are gradually seeing the rise of cars which are capable of driving themselves.

It might not seem as though these autonomous vehicles are likely to affect you at any time soon, but you might be surprised.

Whilst autonomous driving once seemed to be limited to Tesla’s, there are now more and more trucks which are also developing this kind of technology. In this article, Walker Movements take a closer look at the world of self-driving trucks and see what the advantages and disadvantages might be.

Self-driving trucks

Recently, Uber has undergone a test of its first fleet of autonomous trucks, and it looks as though it has been successful. Tesla and Google have both been at the forefront of developing technology that will allow vehicles onto the roads that will require little or no input from the driver once a route has been set.

This has meant that an increasing number of other manufacturers are now looking for ways in which they can incorporate this technology into their own vehicles, in order to be more efficient, meaning that we could soon find that there are fleets of driverless trucks on our roads.

Road accidents

Much of the reasoning behind self-driving technology has been to reduce the number of accidents on the roads.

By using cameras on all sides of the vehicle, the truck can scan everything around it and react much more quickly to an event than the human brain is capable of doing whilst also adapting to different weather environments and road conditions. It is therefore believed that the more self-driving vehicles there are on the roads, the less accidents there are likely to be.

This is because 90% of the accidents that we see are caused by driver error, which could mean that there will be a massive decrease in accidents, injuries and fatalities when this is taken out of the equation.

This all sounds fantastic, but as we are still in the early stages of this type of technology, it is far from being fool proof yet. It seems that changing conditions can still throw a curveball at these vehicles, and the complexities of the systems still vary from one vehicle to another, so it may be a while until our roads are completely safe.

Traffic congestion

We all know the pain of being sat in long tailbacks, and so anything that can reduce this is likely to be welcomed by most drivers. It is believed that self-driving trucks can play a part in helping to reduce congestion, as they will be programmed to take the most optimal route, and not necessarily the most popular one.

As many traffic jams are often caused by the delayed reactions of the humans behind the wheel, these trucks may also help to reduce queues on the busier roads.

Cost

It is forecast that self-driving trucks will play a big part in reducing the costs for many haulage firms, despite the much larger initial investment. This is because they can be more fuel efficient, could eventually reduce insurance costs, and they can also cut out the need for paying the wage of a driver.

However, the sad reality of this is that it can lead to a significant loss of jobs in the industry as drivers will no longer be needed. At the moment, those drivers will have been working in the industry for decades, and this may mean that retraining and finding new jobs in other industries will not be an easy task.

Security

Whilst the idea of loading a truck and sending it off to another destination without any further involvement might sound like a great idea, there are still a great number of concerns over the security of these vehicles.

Anything which operates using this kind of technology is currently vulnerable to hackers and cybercriminals. This means that the vehicle can potentially be taken over by an outside force, leading to the vehicle and its load being hijacked, or giving the hackers the potential to cause death and destruction by controlling the truck remotely.

At a time where many businesses are still working on ways to secure phones, laptops and websites, it might be some time before we can feel confident that autonomous trucks are safe from cyber criminals.

Legal issues

Working out the technology for self-driving vehicles is one thing but allowing them onto the roads is quite another. At the moment, UK law does not permit the use of autonomous vehicles on our roads, although it does look like those laws might be set to change in the next few years.

The law notoriously finds it difficult to keep up with technology, and so it might be a while before the government feels confident that these vehicles are safe enough to legally be allowed on the roads.

Driver shortages

The last few years has seen a worldwide shortage in drivers, as many leave the industry without new recruits waiting to take their places. Whilst there have been many initiatives to bring new drivers from different backgrounds into the industry, it has always proved to be a struggle, and the haulage industry has been at the mercy of a distinct lack of drivers.

By making it possible for trucks to drive themselves, this will no longer be a worry for many companies, who will be able to send trucks out onto the road whether they have a driver or not.

Self-driving vehicles are no longer a thing of science fiction, and instead they are rapidly becoming a reality. They can prove to have some very real benefits for the haulage industry, but as a technology which is still relatively untested, it remains to be seen exactly how common self-driving trucks are likely to be.