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Driverless Big Rigs

J

john in la

Well-known Member
Location
What part of in La do you not understand
No matter how bad you naysayers what to believe it will never work; the technology is there and it is just a matter of time before driverless trucks are on our highways. Especially on controlled roads like turnpikes.
Add the current driver shortage in the equation and companies have real incentive to make this work.

If you have a extra 14 minutes to spare 60 minutes just did a segment on the subject.
Poke Here
 
Sure, we will see it. However, there will be bugs to work out. The truck would be pretty easy to get stopped and disabled where it would be cleaned out. Modern day pirates.
 
I thought about that for automated cars too. Can you imagine going through the hood stove the car thought it would be a good idea and somebody walks out in front of you. Car stops and the hoodlums rob you. That will go over well.
 
It will work some place and some time, but not everywhere all the time.

LTL work is one place it should work well, terminal to terminal and relatively short runs (home daily) so dispatch can mostly control the weather variable. You dont have to worry about snow covered road marking down south.

Personally I see huge potential for this tech to augment a driver. No reason a truck cant drive itself across the western Dakotas most days while the driver is taking a nap. Driver could easily take over on the return to civilization. Would require a drastic revamp of HOS rules though.
 
The wacky television lawyers will control the airways trying to advertise settlements for potential clients for the wrecks involving these driverless trucks. Lol. No seriously, they would almost have to be on dedicated roadways right? Wingnut
 
I have already seen driverless big rigs operating on select dedicated roads called RailRoads. There are even signs to warn drivers at the crossings that the trains are driverless and don't call 911!
 
Robot drivers don't speed, they don't fall asleep and they don't get distracted by their cell phones. They don't have to stop to use the rest room or to take their dog for a walk. They don't take pills or drink alcohol. They don't need time off for medical issues. And they don't collect pay or retirement. Simply stated, the dumbest robot is probably a better driver than the average human from the viewpoint of both fleet operators and of public safety advocates.

Automated trucks are coming. Maybe not for local delivery and short hauls, but certainly for long haul over-the-road routes, where flexibility is not that important. The robots will deliver goods faster, cheaper and safer than humans.
 
(quoted from post at 20:22:42 08/15/21) So we will just put more people out of work, great. Stan
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Stan, you have a responsibility to your country to supply a trucking company with the name and address of any not working truck driver that you know of. They are so desperate for drivers that they will send a recruiter immediately. The company that I work for struggles every day to get trucks to come and pick up the shipments. Delivery times are longer because the carriers limit trucks to their busiest lanes, then pass the loads off to regionals and locals for delivery. The locals will take it even though they know that they can't deliver on time, because they know that no one else can either.
 
(quoted from post at 19:05:07 08/15/21) Sure, we will see it. However, there will be bugs to work out. The truck would be pretty easy to get stopped and disabled where it would be cleaned out. Modern day pirates.
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Gambles the risk would be minimal. The driverless trucks would operate only short distances from interstates on major roads. Here in the northeast, over the last thirty years the major carriers have relocated their terminals from downtown out to the airports, and most of the airports are served by limited access multilane highways. Then if you say how about fuel stops, they will of course be set up right next to highways with access limited only to designated trucks.
 
There are naysayers PRO as well as CON on the subject of EV's and both have valid arguments to support their positions. REGARDLESS of EITHER technology and the market will drive the sales and manufacture. I predict EV will become more prominent in the future once safety and technology and ACCPETANCE BY THE MASSES comes about PLUS the Grid can support all that charging ??????? be it from coal or gas or hydro or nuclear or wind or solar, some of which greenies oppose.......

God Bless America where we all have free choices concerning what to drive as well as so many other freedoms

Drive or like whatever type vehicles yall please, thats what I do

John T Happy and at peace contented and prepared camper. Headed to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn Indiana today in the RV
 
I saw it last night and thought about you. It was a rerun
They said it won't work in snow.
Musk hasn't reached level 5 yet.
A few years back, a truck in Colorado drove 150 miles, no driver, delivering Budweiser.
Still need someone to gas it up.
They claimed they could go coast to coast in 2 days vs 4 days.
The model T evolved, AI is here. I'm guessing it will evolve too.
 
I want to see the truck chain on equipment and deliver oversize loads without damage to the loaded equipment and not knocking the roofs off. I suppose it can be done just not for a while. Somebody will have to chain the loads down and unchain them at the other end. I don't think dealers are ready for that cost yet.
 
I agree JT, we can't stop change.
Airplanes have Auto-Pilot yet we still have pilots and co-pilots.
Happy days.
 
(quoted from post at 05:03:36 08/16/21) I want to see the truck chain on equipment and deliver oversize loads without damage to the loaded equipment and not knocking the roofs off. I suppose it can be done just not for a while. Somebody will have to chain the loads down and unchain them at the other end. I don't think dealers are ready for that cost yet.
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Caterpillar guy, there are millions of tons of dry van freight to haul without worrying about flat bed loads. But just the same it will be done just as easily as dry van. The load is brought into the terminal by a live driver in his Petercar, he rechecks chains, unhooks, terminal jockey backs the driverless tractor under, and away it goes. It will be waaaaaay less likely to hit overpasses or other obstacles because it can be depended on to not deviate from the correct route. Any updates that come to the carrier about changes in the route can be sent to the truck immediately.
 
I agree JT, we can't stop change.

But hey there are times I wish we could lol

Were both Happy Campers

John T
 
So, are you saying that human drivers do all of those things? I never knew any that did any of those things.

To use your own words, that is a straw man argument.
 
In the distant future, AI will rule the world. Eventually mankind will become a burden to the machines and will be eliminated. Fiction becomes reality.
 
John T
Some people hate change so much they resist changing clothes. It's easy to smell them 20 ft away. Evolution, cars, climate, our metabolism, price of everything, and more, all change. ONly thing that doesn't change is people talking about them which doesn't change anything.

Life is good in my HOOD. So quiet, I can hear the corn and grass growing.

Heading for my 4 mile trike ride. Never know what we are going to see, deer, birds flying over bean fields having breakfast, skunks, turkeys, ground hogs, snakes, fox, ...... list goes on.
 
When I see the Dominos commercial for their little robot delivery cart,I always wonder how long those things last. Seems like it would be very entertaining to center punch one with your bull bar and watch it ricochet down the road.
 
Sure they would work. They have commercial planes landing themselves now. I just worry about the time when they don't work. I've never seen or owned anything with electronics that didn't malfunction. We have a 2020 car with sensors on it that will warn you if someone is next to you when you go to change lanes. Sometimes it doesn't tell you when someone is there and sometimes it warns you when nobody is there. If the sensor on the truck said nobody was there it would change lanes and run over someone. I hate to think of a driverless vehicle not having someone to determine if the electronics are working or not.
 
DCarp ..... for sure the 'elimination' part will eventually happen, be it a result of robots or man's destroying the planet or some other reason. I think we can all agree though that eventually the cockroaches will reign supreme.
 
The lawyers may have a hard time proving their case. Cameras all over. Video backed up on truck's computers. No internet or WiFi to worry about.
Trucks are first driven on the route and have the route on records.
 
(quoted from post at 20:58:40 08/15/21) No matter how bad you naysayers what to believe it will never work; the technology is there and it is just a matter of time before driverless trucks are on our highways. Especially on controlled roads like turnpikes.
Add the current driver shortage in the equation and companies have real incentive to make this work.

If you have a extra 14 minutes to spare 60 minutes just did a segment on the subject.
Poke Here
Click to expand...

So, what happens when the truck blows a couple of tires or looses a fan belt or blow a hose?
Truck just stops in it's designated lane blocking all other DLTs behind it.
 
If a cruise and tomahawk missile can be programmed to fly at supersonic speeds, low altitudes and hit their targets hundreds of miles away, You would think AI trucks could be programmed to get from point A to B, especially if someone drives the truck on the route and cameras record landscape.

The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship- and submarine-based land-attack operations.
Designed at APL/JHU, it was initially produced in the 1970s by General Dynamicsas a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. The missile's modular desig

A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets, that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory.

Our airplanes fly Auto Pilot. My point, AI isn't really new technology. Just being applied to cars and trucks. Like it or not.
 
(quoted from post at 14:24:40 08/16/21) If a cruise and tomahawk missile can be programmed to fly at supersonic speeds, low altitudes and hit their targets hundreds of miles away, You would think AI trucks could be programmed to get from point A to B, especially if someone drives the truck on the route and cameras record landscape.

The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) is a long-range, all-weather, jet-powered, subsonic cruise missile that is primarily used by the United States Navy and Royal Navy in ship- and submarine-based land-attack operations.
Designed at APL/JHU, it was initially produced in the 1970s by General Dynamicsas a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. The missile's modular desig

A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial targets, that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of travelling at supersonic or high subsonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory.

Our airplanes fly Auto Pilot. My point, AI isn't really new technology. Just being applied to cars and trucks. Like it or not.
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Cruise and Tomahawk missiles fly sub sonic. But they can be programed to fly NOE for a long ways so that they can strike a target with little or no warning within a couple of inches.

So yea driverless trucks are in the future. At first they will keep a driver in them to take over in the event of system failure. Heck when they started to go with robotics in factories folks said it will never work. But a robot doesn't call in sick, show up drunk or hung over or go on strike. No union wage or benny package to keep up with either. Basically some workers have priced themselves right out of a job.

Rick
 
I spent the last hour just trying to get my computer to see my scanner. So will a computer be able to safely drive a 140k lbs. baffle-less tanker full of 35% hydrochloric acid through snow and ice in a mixed on and off-road setting? Pardon my not being particularly scared for my job security, lol.
 
So, what happens when the truck blows a couple of tires or looses a fan belt or blow a hose?
Truck just stops in it's designated lane blocking all other DLTs behind it.
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You mean like the Indian or Pakistani fellow that parked his 18-wheeler halfway out in the intersection this afternoon? While he fiddle-pharted around with jumper cables.

The intersection was uphill so he could have easily let it back to get it off the main road but either he didn't think of that or he ran it out of air so he couldn't move it.

Stupid driver decisions are not limited to computers, and as an engineer I am quite insulted that you think that engineers are too stupid to think of those kinds of eventualities. I would expect the truck to have tire pressure monitoring, and be programmed to pull off the road BEFORE a blowout. Engines have had sophisticated monitoring for 25 years; all you need is for the AI to pull data from the engine computer, and be programmed to pull over when certain codes are seen.
 
> So, are you saying that human drivers do all of those things? I never knew any that did any of those things.

They didn't sleep, pee or get paid? What a curious bunch of catheterized volunteer insomniac drivers you must hang out with. Those are all things that humans do, and drivers are humans. And sometimes those things cost employers money or get people killed.

> To use your own words, that is a straw man argument.

That's not an expression I've ever used. Or ever intend to use.
 

I would be skeptical of driverless vehicles in the winter time in our state. A road might be perfectly clear and dry and all of a sudden go past a sheltered area and be glare ice in that spot. Even using cruise control in those situations is dangerous and not advised. I just question whether an automated system could react as fast as a human driver in those situations.
Not saying it can't be done and maybe one day we'll see that, but at this point I'm not convinced that we've arrived at that point yet.
 
(quoted from post at 18:51:19 08/16/21)
I would be skeptical of driverless vehicles in the winter time in our state. A road might be perfectly clear and dry and all of a sudden go past a sheltered area and be glare ice in that spot. Even using cruise control in those situations is dangerous and not advised. I just question whether an automated system could react as fast as a human driver in those situations.
Not saying it can't be done and maybe one day we'll see that, but at this point I'm not convinced that we've arrived at that point yet.
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Rich, From what I have seen it is fast reaction in those situations that gets drivers in trouble. The driverless vehicle would have the advantage of receiving a lot of information about the road ahead and the ability to process and apply it before a human would be even giving it a thought.
 
> I would be skeptical of driverless vehicles in the winter time in our state. A road might be perfectly clear and dry and all of a sudden go past a sheltered area and be glare ice in that spot. Even using cruise control in those situations is dangerous and not advised. I just question whether an automated system could react as fast as a human driver in those situations.
Not saying it can't be done and maybe one day we'll see that, but at this point I'm not convinced that we've arrived at that point yet.

Every passenger vehicle made since 2012 has a built-in electronic stability control system that kicks in any time it detects a skid. You can't turn it off and it does react far faster than any human can. Even old-school cruise control can respond to a spinning wheel long before the driver knows it has broken traction. So yes, a computer that makes millions of decisions every second, checks each wheel speed a dozen times a second and has its own accelerometers and other sensors can react far faster on slippery roads than a human driver.
Electronic Stability Control
 
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