Autonomous Trucking, a Needed Disruption on the Road

I was recently returning to Dallas-Fort Worth on a flight from Baltimore when the captain advised all passengers to return to their seats and buckle-in due to weather-related turbulence ahead.  I paused in thought, considering the controls of the plane – would the pilot assume control from autopilot, or maintain course, and in which mode would I feel more assured in safe operations?  Up until two years ago, prior to a visit with TuSimple Holdings, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona, I would not have given flight operations a second thought.  But in that Tucson visit, a long background in fleet transportation and technology compelled me to take advantage of the opportunity to experience autonomous commercial driving first-hand during a test run; though we were in autonomous mode, an experienced driver remained behind the wheel, in the event of the need for human control. Fast forward to December 22, 2021, this same company made history by successfully conducting the first L4 “driver out” autonomous commercial truck operation, completing an 80-mile nighttime delivery from Tucson to Phoenix, without a driver behind the wheel.  While autonomous operations are quickly advancing in trucking, most of us do not consciously realize that at minimum, we are all passive users and involuntary adapters to autonomous transportation. 

You are already a consumer of autonomous operations, both passively and actively. 

Whether you are a regular or recent commercial air passenger (passive) or drive a recent automobile with such features as lane assist, automatic breaking, and adaptive cruise control (active), we are each engaged daily in autonomous driving activities.  Even without such features in your car, your actions, and their impact on vehicles around you with such autonomous features, are inseparable.  While autonomy has long been present in commercial aviation, the advancement of autonomous ground transportation is naturally, and quickly, following.  Multiple companies, working alone as well as with major transportation carriers and retailers, are actively involved in autonomous applications across all segments of delivery.  Many automobile manufactures comprise a portion of these efforts, further providing the advantages of autonomy directly to consumers of their personal vehicles.  The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels of autonomy from Level 0 (no automation) to Level 5 (full automation).  

While TuSimple (and others) proved the application of L4 and L5, L2 is commonplace with personal vehicles and L3, with L4 right behind it, is currently within consumer grasp.

Autonomy solves multiple supply chain problems, including truck transportation. 

One does not need to be directly involved in the transportation industry to be aware that truck driver shortages remain a considerable concern for carriers, retailers, manufactures, and others alike.  The news stories are commonplace, as the consumer is ultimately impacted. Trucking “drives” the economy, touching well north of 80% of products U.S. consumers purchase.  While fuel costs directly contribute to the cost of goods (and alternative fuels and power cells are already a well-publicized transportation disruptor), driver labor remains another major contributing challenge.  Multiple autonomous vehicle companies seek to solve this problem, predominantly in middle and last mile segments.  Their algorithms are proprietary, including such technology applications as radar, lidar, cameras, and mapping; these are applications that “see” farther and in more directions than the human eye, and enact driving decisions much faster than human action and reaction.  With such advanced features, as well as the absence of D.O.T. logging requirements with the associated driver labor, the need to advance autonomous trucking is impossible to ignore.

“While autonomous operations are quickly advancing in trucking, most of us do not consciously realize that at minimum, we are all passive users and involuntary adapters to autonomous transportation.”

Autonomy is not without its hurdles. 

Challenges to autonomous trucking abound but will not stem the inevitable (and necessary) application of such operations.  Not an all-inclusive list, among those key challenges include regulatory requirements as well as public buy-in, with safety applications overarching both.  While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will ultimately provide the regulatory requirements on public roadways, states, counties, and municipalities each “have a say” in how autonomous trucking operates in their respective jurisdictions.  Additionally, these jurisdictions are subject to community and citizen input; though autonomous applications are quickly gaining acceptance in personal vehicle operations, a large, 80-thousand-pound vehicle cruising the roadway garners a stronger lens of scrutiny in the public mind.  Education always precedes acceptance – not many realize that 94% of all motor vehicle accidents are the result of human error, affecting roughly 3 million Americans in injuries and fatalities annually; autonomy can help solve for such events.  A parting consideration is shared autonomous mobility (SAM) among providers; with consideration to proprietary applications, the development of autonomous transportation must remain a collaborative effort among providers and jurisdictions, to include vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) application, further increasing safety and efficiency.

Looking back on a career in trucking that started nearly three decades ago in the military, I have had the privilege to serve with and support professional truck drivers across industries that are among the best in their ranks.  I felt safe every time in the navigation seat and with each “ride-along” on countless excursions.  My foray into autonomous trucking two years ago was distinctly different: from a professional standpoint, I recognized the multiple applications in trucking, solvable through autonomous solutions, and the positive future impact to the industry.  Personally, I had never felt safer – the capability of the autonomous solution, coupled with my observations, could not be rivaled.  Going forward, many observers, to include the NHTSA, see as early as the year 2025 as the entry window for full autonomous vehicle safety features and applications.  Given my experiences, I am optimistic to believe this will, and must include commercial transport.  In the meantime, remain a vigilant observer on the road, not just for safety’s sake – whether you are on the I10 in Arizona, driving the “triangle” in Texas, or elsewhere, you will likely capture the attention (as it will yours) of an autonomous truck sharing the road with you.