• About Geek Beat
  • Newsletter
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Login
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Geek Beat

One of the world’s most recognizable technology news brands, delivering daily tech news, tips, and reviews.

  • News
    • Apple
    • CES
    • Editor’s Choice
    • Google
    • How To’s
    • Microsoft
    • Music
    • Mobility
    • NABShow
    • Photography
  • Episodes
  • Reviews
  • Videos
  • Connect With Us
    • Chat Rooms
    • DropCams
    • Geek Beat Live!
    • Product Review Submissions
Home > Episodes > Self-Driving Trucks Hit the Road
Cali Lewis on GeekBeat Episode 861

Self-Driving Trucks Hit the Road

June 11, 2014 by giovanni

Thanks to Geek House supporters!

Thanks SO much to Brian Hunter and Joaquin Arosemena for tagging the Geek House Wall of Fame with their names! We’re getting VERY close to moving in. But as soon as we do, we are hitting the road for our annual trip to New York for CE Week! Join us live June 25th and 26th at geekbeat.tv/live. And for the first time ever…. I’ll be joining the boys on the road. Yikes! But it’ll be worth putting up with them because we’re stopping in Nashville to visit the UpDesk factory! And we’re going to get to see our special, unique desks for the Geek House being made! I can’t wait!! You can get your name on the wall for all eternity at geekbeat.tv/fundraiser. We appreciate all your support This is YOUR building as much as it is ours. Because Geek Beat is all about you – the community!

Robots Working the Roads

We all know about Google’s experiments with self-driving cars. Most recently, they showed off this car that doesn’t even have a steering wheel! But… giant self-driving trucks and construction vehicles are in the background… quietly becoming reality with some big implications for all of us.

Unmanned Trucks for the Military

Surprise, surprise, the military’s on the bleeding edge of adopting autonomous capabilities on the battlefield. Drones allow the US air force to patrol hostile skies without worrying about losing pilots. Well… imagine if self-driving convoys were in place to allow the US Army to maintain supply lines through hostile ground without worrying about losing a single soldier.

In January, Lockheed was successful with a self-driving convoy through a combat course at Fort Hood Texas. Interestingly enough, it’s a system that can be bolted onto pretty much any driveable piece of equipment the Army has! Which means, it could be driven remotely through dangerous areas in both rural and city settings. The self-driving army trucks showed they could safely share the road with live traffic and other obstacles. They’ve already logged 12,000 miles of road tests… so it could be battlefield-ready pretty soon!

Caterpillar’s MineStar System

On the civilian side, Caterpillar is putting 45 self-driving 250-ton trucks and other autonomous mining equipment to work in Australia. Operators can monitor and control work in dangerous areas without putting humans at risk. Caterpillar says that its MineStar and Command systems are boosting productivity at the iron-ore mine by 25%.

Komatsu is Automating Mines, Too

Komatsu is also supplying self-driving equipment to the Austrialian mining industry with similar results. Surely, other manufacturers will follow suit. This technology also reduces the need to hire as many highly skilled (and highly paid) equipment operators so there are some social implications to consider.

Automated Transportation Trucking

On the open road, the American, European and Japanese trucking industries are also working toward a future that could include self-driving big rigs.

Japan has been testing this technology since 2007! And they’ve successfully programmed a convoy of trucks to automatically maintain four meter spacing (14 feet for us silly Americans). This cuts down on air resistance and reduces the drag similar to “drafting” with a race car.

In Europe, Volvo has demonstrated a similar approach they call Platooning. In this scenario, there’s a lead truck with a human driver, but then autonomous trucks and cars are programmed to follow the lead. This was done on public roads in Spain, they covered 200 kilometers (124 miles) in one day, driving at a speed of 90 kilometers an hour (which is about 55 miles an hour). They were spaced only 5 meters (16 feet) apart. These tests suggest using the platooning method could see fuel savings of up to 15 percent.

In the US, Peloton Tech is doing similar tests on desert highways in Utah and Nevada. The trucks travelled at 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour with a separation of 11 meters (or 36 feet) between them. They had fuel savings of ten percent on this one.

Of course, the technology is way ahead of the legislation needed to make self-driving trucks (and cars) a reality on public roads, but we expect that to change within the next ten years.

Pros and Cons of Automated Trucks

So… what are the pros and cons of all self driving awesomeness? First, there’s safety. You’ve got highways with self driving vehicles that have amazing track records for safety… sharing the road with cars and trucks operated by human drivers, whose track record… well, not so amazing. The combination of the two could prove dangerous. Can you imagine… humans still aren’t even near used to the idea of seeing no one behind the wheel. You’re driving down the road, see a self driving vehicle (a TRUCK no less)… and the first thing you do is take your concentration off the road to marvel at the success and share the story with passengers or worse, start taking pictures of it and posting it on Twitter. All while trying to drive without crashing.

So the US trucking industry is thinking about putting autonomous short-haul trucks on the highways overnight when traffic (and the likelihood of interaction with human driven vehicles) is lessened.

Once self-driving trucks enter the long-haul market – which currently requires teams of human drivers and required rest periods- there’s no way to avoid human drivers during peak daylight hours, so we might see that change a while later.

And – just like the potential for job losses in the mining industry, the trucking industry isn’t immune. In the US alone, 5.7 million people are licensed as professional truck drivers, at full-time salaries and benefits totaling $65,000 to $100,000 per position. What will happen to them?

I would expect many of those jobs to change rather than disappear altogether. You still have to have operators monitoring the trips. Safety concerns could require trucks to be staffed by humans during the day to deal with human drivers or to safely pilot them through urban areas, “releasing” them at city limits. And, since there’s a shortage of drivers right now, and there’s high turnover with long-haul drivers (because it’s a tough job!), some people are saying this could be a win for both the trucking industry and its drivers.

Sponsored by Lynda.com

Lynda.com has created thousands of tutorials covering a HUGE range of subjects and it’s all available to you starting around $25. Go learn something new at lynda.com/geekbeat.

Filed Under: Episodes, Events Tagged With: Google, self-driving cars, transportation

About giovanni

giovanni is an ad age, emmy, telly, & webby award-winning search engine optimization and social media strategist from texas who works with brands in entertainment, fashion, food & beverage, sports, and technology.

Watch giovanni's latest videos on youtube.

Comments

  1. Jani Turunen says

    June 11, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    i want to drive thank you

  2. Matthew says

    June 11, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    Self-driving farm equipment has been around for a few years, and they are getting even more automated with UAVs and LIDAR these days.

    http://www.wired.com/2009/10/precisionfarming/all/

Popular Posts

  • How To Keep A Constant In Excel And Other Spreadsheets by Scott Ellis | posted on April 19, 2012 | under News, Tutorial
  • Complete Sci-Fi Spaceship Size Comparison Chart by giovanni | posted on September 19, 2014 | under News
  • How to Use Your Own Router with AT&T U-verse by Chris Bramble | posted on February 17, 2014 | under News, Tutorial
  • How To Add Sound and Voice to Your Photos by giovanni | posted on July 22, 2013 | under Episodes
  • How Much Money Will Fit in a Briefcase? by John P. | posted on September 26, 2013 | under Episodes
  • How to Access Advanced Boot Options in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 by Robert Albury | posted on September 10, 2014 | under Tutorial
  • How To Redirect Windows User Profile Data to a Different Location by Robert Albury | posted on November 14, 2014 | under Tutorial
  • How to Set Up a Plex Server on a QNAP NAS by Dexter | posted on April 18, 2014 | under Tutorial
  • Up, Down, Left, Right, Click! by Jenn Castillo | posted on August 10, 2010 | under News
  • Android File Transfer Not Working with Samsung Device – Here’s How to Fix It! by John P. | posted on October 20, 2013 | under Tutorial

Recent Posts

  • Go Mic Mobile Wireless System for Mobile Filmmakers
  • A RAY OF LIGHT
  • Keep Devices Charged Anywhere in the World with the Twist Plus World Charging Station
  • Final Leaked iPhone 7 Details Before The Big Event
  • Should Snapchat Be A Part of Your Digital Strategy?

Recent Comments

  • Ricardo Garza on Streambox Announces 360 Live Video Streaming to YouTube
  • Sunbya on Review: Blue Lola Headphones bring unparalleled quality
  • Jay Anderson on CES2016 – Autel Robotics X-Star Quadcopters
  • Scott Ellis on CES2016 – The Parrot DISCO – The Worlds First Fixed Wing Consumer Drone
  • Ricardo Garza on CES2016 – The Parrot DISCO – The Worlds First Fixed Wing Consumer Drone

Tags

3D Amazon Apple apps audio bluetooth business CE Line Shows 2013 CES computers fitness gadgets games gaming geek geek beat GeekBeat geek house Google health how-to ios john p. kickstarter Microsoft mobile Mobility Music nabshow new building Other photography Reviews robots Samsung social media speakers storage tech technology travel Tutorial vehicles video vlog

Copyright © 2021 · Geek Media on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in