The new era of autonomous trucks: With or without a driver?

Barcelona, November 16, 2023.- Autonomous trucks for goods are part, in some countries, of transportation strategies in the supply chain. Below are its benefits:

Although most autonomous truck developers are targeting unmanned operation, these companies are pursuing business models that would complement the trucking industry’s workforce rather than displacing it.

These developers are not attempting to produce unmanned vehicles that can go everywhere or haul every type of freight that a human driver can cover. Instead, they are reducing the complexity of the problem by constraining autonomous trucks to a more limited operational design domain, or ODD — which refers to a set of operating conditions that the autonomous driving system is designed to handle. Typically, this means that autonomous trucks would operate only on specific, repeatable routes that are well suited to automation, leaving more complex routes and driving situations to trucks piloted by human drivers.

Some developers envision autonomous trucking as a new mode of transportation for shippers, carriers and logistics providers to consider when planning freight movements.

Since autonomous trucks will only travel on certain routes and under specific conditions, the trucking industry, and by extension the nation’s supply chain and economy, will continue to depend on professional truck drivers for the foreseeable future. In fact, the industry will need to recruit more drivers, not fewer, as freight volumes increase over time. But autonomous trucks could ease the industry’s struggles to recruit drivers and help mitigate high driver turnover rates, especially in longhaul trucking.

While the rollout of this technology has been slower than many predicted several years ago, developers have made tangible progress toward deployment and commercialization.

A crucial component of the development work is designing autonomous driving systems to respond to innumerable edge cases — the very rare or unexpected events that the autonomous vehicles might encounter, such as a fallen tree blocking the roadway.

In February of 2022, self-driving truck developer TuSimple announced it would conduct driverless freight runs for Union Pacific Railroad between Tuscon and Phoenix in Arizona. (TuSimple)

Today, autonomous truck developers are operating primarily in the U.S. Sunbelt, especially in Southwestern states such as Texas, Arizona and New Mexico that have ideal weather conditions and a favorable regulatory environment for testing and eventual deployment. However, some have mapped out nationwide networks for autonomous truck lanes as part of their longer-term ambitions.

Autonomous could hold the potential to unlock numerous safety and efficiency benefits for the freight transportation industry.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity

Fully autonomous trucks would no longer be constrained by drivers’ limited driving time under hours-of-service regulations, thus opening the way for much greater vehicle utilization and higher productivity.

Improved Safety on the Roads

Autonomous vehicles also promise potential safety benefits. Although automated driving software is not as flexible or adaptable as the human mind, it also can perceive hazards sooner and react faster. Unlike humans, computers do not get tired or become distracted or angry behind the wheel.

Reduced Labor Costs

And perhaps most significantly, autonomous trucks could help ease the trucking industry’s longstanding struggle to attract and retain professional drivers.

By automating some longhaul truck routes in hub-to-hub freight operations, autonomous trucks could shift some driver jobs from longhaul truckload operations — where driver turnover rates can exceed 100% for some carriers — to shorthaul and regional jobs that provide more home time and better match the preferences of many younger drivers.

Potential for Reduced Carbon Emissions

Some autonomous vehicle developers also say their technology will yield significant fuel savings because autonomous trucks will operate more efficiently than human-driven trucks and may travel at lower average speeds that consume less fuel.

Business Cases for Autonomous Trucks

Over time, the development of autonomous trucks has split into narrower and more diverse use cases.

Unmanned Longhaul Trucking

Today, the majority of autonomous truck developers are designing their virtual drivers to haul freight in regular hub-to-hub routes on interstate highways, thus avoiding the more complex urban driving associated with the first and final mile.

In this business model, autonomous trucks would cover the longhaul portion of a shipment while trucks driven manually by human drivers would continue to handle the first and final legs of the journey, with human-piloted and autonomous trucks swapping trailers at designated transfer hubs.

Other Self-Driving Trucking Operations

Other companies are pursuing very different but still limited use cases.

Gatik, for instance, is using self-driving, medium-duty box trucks to move freight on shorthaul delivery routes on public roads between logistics sites and store locations.

Other developers are focusing on off-road applications. Outrider, for one, is working to enable unmanned operations in logistics yards, while others such as Pronto are targeting industrial sites such as mining operations.

Self-Driving Trucking from Afar

Another concept for autonomous truck deployment involves teleoperation, where autonomous vehicles are supervised from afar by remote drivers in offices. The trucks would drive autonomously but remote drivers could intervene if the vehicle is stopped or encounters an unexpected obstacle.

Supervised Autonomy

Furthermore, some developers have pursued various forms of “supervised autonomy.”

Plus, for example, has begun commercializing its Plus Drive self-driving technology as a driver-assist system to help pave the way for full autonomy in the future.

Truck Platooning

Other technology developers have sought to combine automated driving technology with truck platooning, where two or more trucks form a convoy connected via vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Synchronized braking enables reduced following distances to provide enhanced aerodynamics and fuel savings. Typically, the lead truck is piloted by a human driver while the following trucks are either partially automated with driver-assist capabilities or potentially “drone” trucks with no driver onboard.

Industry Partnerships

Developers of autonomous driving systems are not alone in their quest to make unmanned trucks a reality.

These companies have formed partnerships with global truck manufacturers, industry suppliers and a range of other transportation industry stakeholders.

Autonomous Truck Driving Technology

One key element of this development work is integrating autonomous driving software and sensors with mass-produced commercial vehicles in a way that ensures safety and reliability.

While some early developers in the autonomous truck space saw potential for aftermarket installations of self-driving systems, nearly all of today’s autonomous truck developers say their technology will need to be installed on commercial trucks at the factory level.

Redundant Systems for Safety

Without a driver behind the wheel as a backup, autonomous trucks will require additional components and redundant systems to ensure safety in the event of a technical failure.

Autonomous truck platforms developed by truck makers and technology suppliers feature secondary braking and steering systems, redundant powertrain controls and cybersecurity safeguards.

As development work on autonomous trucks continues, efforts to enhance and expand the capabilities of driver-assist technologies also are advancing.

Truck manufacturers and industry suppliers have been introducing advanced driver assist systems, or ADAS, that build upon the safety technologies that have been on the market for years, such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure warnings, electronic stability control and adaptive cruise control.

More recently, truck makers have begun offering driver-assist features that partially automate steering functions. These automated steering capabilities include lane keep assist and lane departure protection.

These driver-assist functions and the components and sensors that support them can be viewed as building blocks for fully autonomous vehicles.

Nonetheless, the development of autonomous driving is largely distinct from ADAS because the technical requirements and business cases for fully autonomous vehicles differ significantly from driver-assist systems that depend on a driver to operate the vehicle.