The HGV driver crisis and self driving vehicle technology...
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I'm not sure how well autonomous HGVs would cope with Britain's narrow roads, human-controlled roadworks, temporary unmanned roadworks with and without lights, narrow roads and bridges with priority flow in one direction, gateless level crossings, speed humps, variable speed restrictions or lane closures on motorways, or tricky loading bay access at supermarkets. The low-bridge problem should be avoidable if every instance is programmed and LIDAR can detect other low obstacles such as tree and power/telephone lines. LIDAR should also protect against pedestrians, children, animals, potholes, and other unexpected items in the driving area. However, I envisage thousands of such vehicles getting stuck each day and having to be rescued by human intervention - which requires HGV drivers on hand.
All those problems will be solved over the next 1-3 decades but a big step would be to introduce automated vehicles on long haul highway routes between cargo hubs and to/from warehouses in industry/commercial districts - those are usually not that crowded and have easier access. That would help tremendously with the worldwide driver shortage.
Part of the problem is that the job is unattractive because of the requirement to be on the road and away from family/friends for a long time, together with the rather low pay it is one of the key reasons the shortage is getting worse each year. Technology is not quite there yet to have completely unmanned vehicles on public roads, i guess it'll be at least another 10 years before both technology and laws have caught up to make that possible.
When that happens ( not if but when) be ready for a steep increase in numbers of such trucks on the highways every year and less elephant racing as we like to call it in Germany when a truck tries to pass another truck while barely going faster. Trucking companies will jump on these trucks like sharks in bloody water because they don't have drivers to pay anymore and can have trucks on the road 24/7 without breaks - the holy grail of logistics.
Part of the problem is that the job is unattractive because of the requirement to be on the road and away from family/friends for a long time, together with the rather low pay it is one of the key reasons the shortage is getting worse each year. Technology is not quite there yet to have completely unmanned vehicles on public roads, i guess it'll be at least another 10 years before both technology and laws have caught up to make that possible.
When that happens ( not if but when) be ready for a steep increase in numbers of such trucks on the highways every year and less elephant racing as we like to call it in Germany when a truck tries to pass another truck while barely going faster. Trucking companies will jump on these trucks like sharks in bloody water because they don't have drivers to pay anymore and can have trucks on the road 24/7 without breaks - the holy grail of logistics.
Is there perhaps an opportunity for automated heist vehicles piloted by nefarious robots for the criminal market?
Oh yeah.. unmanned trucks, so criminals don't have to be careful, can ram them off the road and plunder the things in no time..
Right as if they do that with a driver present, what would be the difference? Do you believe any driver would risk his life defending his cargo with a shotgun hollywood-style? Get real.
I am a logistics manager and i can tell you that never happened - trucks are regularly robbed everywhere, even on parking lots and some pictures i saw make me believe it's impossible not to wake up when your truck is looted in a way that it looks like grenades were thrown. All cargo is insured, so no need for heroics at all and that won't change with automated vehicles, in fact with no driver present no chance for injury or worse.
The future of Trucking will have 3 man crew as Driver + 2 people riding Shotgun and alternating Guard Duties/Driving along with 24/7/365 driving to protect the precious cargo.
Each 3 man Driving team will be heavily armed and ready to shoot any looters / thieves
Each 3 man Driving team will be heavily armed and ready to shoot any looters / thieves
Actually it will all go much more boring, these things will be hacked and randsomeware installed, and of course the owners will be asked to pay up else no one will get any food/fuel/whatever and don't start with "that will never happen" or something, hacker groups have resources FAR beyond any IT department of any company, when your company is in the picture they will take it down.
@FPAlpha, dude calm down, you don't have to take everything so serious, that post was to be taken with a truckload (harr harr) of salt.
@FPAlpha, dude calm down, you don't have to take everything so serious, that post was to be taken with a truckload (harr harr) of salt.
Actually it will all go much more boring, these things will be hacked and randsomeware installed, and of course the owners will be asked to pay up else no one will get any food/fuel/whatever and don't start with "that will never happen" or something, hacker groups have resources FAR beyond any IT department of any company, when your company is in the picture they will take it down.
@FPAlpha, dude calm down, you don't have to take everything so serious, that post was to be taken with a truckload (harr harr) of salt.
May have misunderstood your post then, sorry.
You are right that automated technology carries risks in other areas, hacking would be a valid concern ( also applies to regular cars that are more automated by the year). As always it will start an arms race between hackers and developers and become part of normal day to day business.
That is why you won't have "Automated Truck Driving".
You'll have enhanced Truck Driving like you do now, but with more people in the cab and they'll have additional duty to protect the cargo.
It'll give whole new meaning to "Riding Shotgun".
I think automating transport between major distribution hubs and then using smaller vans or lorries to make local deliveries might be a good solution. Automated trains would be even easier to implement and even manned trains could carry far more goods than an HGV. Wouldn't work for the movement of hazardous goods such as petrol or specialised loads like concrete or animals but for other things, worth considering?
That's the current logistical system - from rough distribution ( production plant to warehouse to distribution hubs) to fine distribution ( stores or consumers directly). The first part could be done well with atuomated trucks and would solve the driver crisis instantly, the second is more complicated with dense and complicated urban environments that current machines can't handle too well, this is where humans still have the advantage.
Yes, sorry for repeating what you'd really already stated. I think it bears repetition though. I also think the existing rail networks could be better integrated in the UK but I expect the rail unions would push strongly against allowing autonomous goods trains to be operated on main lines.
No harm done.
Okay, as for other options for the problem, there was a pilot project somewhere that used one truck driven by a human with, I think, up to three or four autonomous trucks that sort of used the human driven truck as a kind of guide, think that at the current tech level this kind of convoi could work.
Also, in certain parts of the Netherlands we have extra large trucks, kinda like a smaller version of the Australian road trains, I assume that something like that could be a stopgap measure as well.
As for trains, well yeah, really large one can haul tens of thousands of tons of whatever you need to move.
Unfortunately, Dr Richard Beeching is usually blamed for the axing of about a third of our rail network in the UK by the end of the 1960s, although it was the politicians that approved it. We here are still suffering for the consequences of that particular lack of foresight.
I did watch some recorded streams from the official makers of American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator on Steam for a bit. Was cool, you get a feel for how easy/difficult driving a big truck would be. Of course, actually driving on ETS/ATS would be even better, get you closer to the real deal. Parking is probably the hardest part, especially if you choose a higher difficulty level.
My guess is that AI-assisted slow-speed manoeuvring of HGVs is probably quite a simple task to program provided sufficient LIDAR and other data are available to avoid obstacles. I've seen some loading bays that are quite difficult for a human driver to reverse into but which require only a relatively small number of steps. Precision of execution of these steps and course correction require good data feeds. Out on the open road, there are many more variables to take into consideration and if the AI just gives up and defaults to stopping for safety whenever it can't cope, that is going to inconvenience and annoy a lot of other road users.
It'll probably be 50 or a 100 years before self-driving vehicles hit Indian roads. Nobody follows any rules. Well, maybe just one rule: "Don't hit anyone."
Has the UK and Europe considered giving job opportunities and visas to foreign drivers? They could easily be trained and would probably be eager to live and work there, not to mention the salaries would be higher than what they get in their home countries.
Has the UK and Europe considered giving job opportunities and visas to foreign drivers? They could easily be trained and would probably be eager to live and work there, not to mention the salaries would be higher than what they get in their home countries.
{Littel Englander]Brexit means Brexit, damnit! No Johnnie foreigners here, thank you very much![/Little Englander]
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