Self-driving vehicles are the future, and trucking is where it’s happening first.
Trucking companies are looking for ways to improve their fleets and reduce costs. With technology making it possible for trucks to drive themselves, they’re getting closer than ever to making the dream a reality.
Gearing up For Fully-Autonomous Trucking
Over the past few years, start-ups have emerged with plans to introduce fully autonomous trucking operations on North American roads. The hospitable climate in Texas, Florida, and Arizona makes the area an ideal testing ground for pilot projects.
Many current issues in the trucking industry could be addressed by autonomous trucks, including driver shortages, rising vehicle prices, volatile fuel prices, performance limitations, and safety concerns.
However, an autonomous solution will almost certainly cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The After-Effects of Driverless Trucks
Carnegie Mellon University and The University of Michigan conducted a study on the potential effects of driverless trucks on the long-haul trucking market.
Researchers investigated how automation could replace human hours in various scenarios spanning more than 500 miles across the country. The research focused on a “transfer hub” model, where a human driver handles the more complicated trip from a distribution center to a truck port. The load is transferred to an automated vehicle that completes the highway leg of the route.
According to the study, if such a system were implemented nationwide, 94 percent of human operator hours could be affected, potentially resulting in the loss of up to 500,000 jobs.
Around 10 percent of worker operator hours will be impacted if automation is limited to Sun Belt states. If automation is only used in the spring and summer, half of the nation’s trucking hours could be driverless.
The Road Ahead for Autonomous Trucking
How the widespread use of self-driving trucks will impact the industry is still being determined. Some have predicted that automation will eliminate all trucking jobs, while others argue that such predictions are greatly exaggerated.
Some argue that automation will benefit the trucking industry because long-haul driving is a tedious job that requires truckers to spend weeks away from their families and has a 100 percent turnover rate.
However, even as technology advances, many obstacles still exist to developing a perfectly safe and sustainable autonomous cargo industry.
The success of pilot programs in the Sun Belt in the coming years will determine how widespread implementation will be, but any lapse in safety could inhibit progress.
