01/17/2022
Autonomous trucks as part of a logistics evolution
Last decade has marked a rise of a tech companies and we can notice technologies engaging with every industry possible. Logistics as one of the leading domains in a humanity history can’t avoid an intervention of an artificial intelligence in order to jump to the next step of the evolution. If we talk specifically about trucking field, there are variety of tech companies working hard on robotization of certain duties in short term and automation of an entire driving experience in long term vision. Let’s get a close look at it and find out how big of an impact it all could bring to us.
Self-driving tech companies have collectively logged millions of miles in either controlled or real-world testing, but just about every one of those miles had an actual person involved.
On December 22nd tech company named TuSimple completed a test with a first fully autonomous semi truck on a public road without a human in a vehicle or without human intervention. Autonomous Driving System (ADS) was successfully tested in a real world circumstances with traffic lights, highway, surface streets, other traffic motorists interactions. With that being said, that innovation can be a great assistance to a truck driver, who may lose a focus, feel fatigue or simply wants to share duties with a robot whilst completing another tasks requiring human brain and behavior intervention. Robotic driving assistance will make less mistakes and if it’s developed in a right way it will fill in a driver's natural blindspots.
If we think long term, it's not really going to take any jobs. This is going to fulfill the driver shortage that we currently have. It's going to keep uptime on the truck through collision mitigation, it's going to save fuel – some of those things for fleet drivers will come back in rewards. And when it comes a time for robots to fully substitute human drivers, there will be a ton of a new professions required as humanity evolves and goes further in its development. Think about conveyor workers. It was one of the most required positions of an industrial age. Can you imagine someone who wants to work as an conveyor operator today? I can’t. Because that position outlived itself. It calls evolution. Solution: always keep up with innovations, adapt to a reality of the fast growing technologies and be a master of your craft.
I think what’s important for this industry to move forward is public opinion and our comfort with driverless trucks on the road, and that takes time to build. ADS oriented tech companies need to prove it to drivers, logistics companies, DOT regulators and to people in general. To take that first step, it’s important to have a lot of safety precautions.
Automation is a reality we all must face.
