Just read this horror story about driverless trucks.
Would be interested in other drivers comments.
Mine is…all self driving vehicles on public roads are completely bonkers and should be scrapped. All the money wasted on this pointless technology should be spent on enhanced driver training, better hourly rates, and extra motorway facilties for current truck drivers who deliver everything for this country working tirelessly every day through the pandemic to keep goods on the shelves. Just a no brainer to me.
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Not by 2021 no. But it will come and sooner than some expect. For a long while they will still have a ‘captain’ who sits there bored silly incase it goes wrong and you have to take over. Should take all of us to retirement.
I’d imagine they will have big yards like amazon have fully autonomous shunters before long. Wouldn’t surpise me if that came soon.
Self driving doesn’t have to be fully safe. Just safer than humans. And as for drivers being paid more rather than investing in technology… You can’t really be saying that with a straight face can you?
Bosch, Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz et al wouldn’t be spending billions developing this technology unless they thought it would have a practical commercial application. It won’t be mainstream within my working life and probably not within my lifetime, but by the time my kids are my age I doubt that many trucks will be operated by a human.
Self driving vehicles don’t concern me, what with the way the AEBS likes to activate due to overhead gantries etc in rain or going around tight curves in town centres.
When in fog/mist, the lane assist automatically switches off.
Put those self driving vehicles in the real world and they wont last, shutting down motorway networks from miscalculations etc.
Then there’s the legal liability if one was involved in a crash. Who would a claim be made against, the manufacturer?
The quickest way to get them working will be to change the road infrastructure in various ways. So it comes down together it is financially worth doing.
Pipe dream. There’s still too many niggles to iron out. Lane departure for example it often senses that your going out of lane on a motorway when infect your not, it’s thinking an old line where the road works used to be is your lane when it’s not. That’s not the technology at fault it’s the state of British roads. How’s it supposed to keep in a lane when it can’t tell where the lane is? But it’s enough to make driver less not reliable enough yet to cope with real world. Also the amount an actros tells me the sensor at the front is dirty so emergency brake has been deactivated. Something else pretty essential for driverless for it work all the time not only when it first comes out of the wash.
I would agree it is at least 10 years away in my opinion. The might cancel long motorway trips and have drivers meet at say the services outside the town they are delivering to and they take it to the yard/depot which is then shunted by another autonomous shutter vehicle. They are slowly trying to do everyone out of work that’s for sure.
I drove a 20 plate MAN and the lane assist automatically steered you back into lane like it was possessed.
They are definitely experimenting with the technology that’s for sure. Mirror cams so the computer can see cars, lane technology to keep it in a straight line, auto boxes, cruise to take away human interaction. Even the actrosis starting to go round roundabouts with minimal assist. When they bring out a system where you don’t have to manually drop a trailer then it’s time to start panicking
It’ll happen! I have that on good authority from an undercover Trucknetter who was parachuted in behind enemy lines into New Zealand to ensure the smooth transition to totally driverless vehicles.
Why New Zealand I hear you ask? Perhaps because it’s the furthest point on earth away from here I’d imagine.
thehighlandscot:
I would agree it is at least 10 years away in my opinion. The might cancel long motorway trips and have drivers meet at say the services outside the town they are delivering to and they take it to the yard/depot which is then shunted by another autonomous shutter vehicle. They are slowly trying to do everyone out of work that’s for sure.
I drove a 20 plate MAN and the lane assist automatically steered you back into lane like it was possessed.
They are definitely experimenting with the technology that’s for sure. Mirror cams so the computer can see cars, lane technology to keep it in a straight line, auto boxes, cruise to take away human interaction. Even the actrosis starting to go round roundabouts with minimal assist. When they bring out a system where you don’t have to manually drop a trailer then it’s time to start panicking
Not the only one.
And Scammell had a system decades ago.
Not for a long time, they would have to completely re-design yards to accommodate self driving trucks and it’d be only worth it for giant companies in the USA really in dry states, my lane sensor goes off just from a bit of rain.
I can see “Drone Trucks” (cabless freight drones) being a more common thing within the next decade, The whole seismic shift that’s going on in the decarbonisation of transport will hasten the onset of this technology more than ever. trucks.com/2020/10/05/einri … velopment/
TuSimple and Navistar said they will have a fully integrated self-driving truck ready for mass-production at the truck builder’s factories by 2024,
the truck unit of German automaker Volkswagen, said it plans to develop self-driving trucks with TuSimple.
The San Diego, Calif., self-driving technology company already has a similar deal with Navistar International Corp. to develop International brand autonomous vehicles for the U.S. market.
Traton is a major Navistar shareholder and is in talks to acquire the Lisle, Ill., company. Its work with TuSimple will focus on the European market where VW owns the MAN and Scania brands…
Like the U.S., Western Europe suffers from a shortage of truckers and some estimates say the shortfall in Germany amounts to 60,000 positions. Traton said it sees autonomous trucks as a potential solution to the shortage. trucks.com/2020/09/23/trato … us-trucks/
Do we even have driver-less trains yet?
It is not the ability of the technology that matters, but the real world application - and that often fails to deliver (unlike us).
ScaniaUltimate:
Do we even have driver-less trains yet?
It is not the ability of the technology that matters, but the real world application - and that often fails to deliver (unlike us).
Yes I’m sure we do… The Docklands Lite Railway in London has 'em. I remember passengers early on would refuse to get on them due to perceived safety issues. I haven’t lived there for many decades, so I’m not sure if they’ve had any incidents or if they decided to put human drivers back in 'em or not.
It seems rather futile to imagine that cars in 40 years time will be anything like they are in 2020.
They all had a human driver.
Autonomous vehicles are for people who don’t like to drive.Or for green eyed waste of space white collar workers imposing a sour grapes agenda.
No chance of seeing them on UK roads by 2021 and not even by 2031. I think we’ll see them trundling around in RDC yards within 10 years as they have a fixed operating area with few ‘unknowns’ to contend with. Out on the public road network? No, not for a long time. If anything they’d trial them on motorways trunking between depots a couple of junctions apart that have a modern road infrastructure in each industrial area. That would make for reasonably simple manoeuvres for them to understand. I don’t see them operating in central London or any town centre environment in my lifetime.
the maoster:
It’ll happen! I have that on good authority from an undercover Trucknetter who was parachuted in behind enemy lines into New Zealand to ensure the smooth transition to totally driverless vehicles.
Why New Zealand I hear you ask? Perhaps because it’s the furthest point on earth away from here I’d imagine.
Are you trying to say New Zealand isn’t at the cutting edge of autonomous transportation infrastructure?
I would imagine that the low population density and uncomplicated roading would make the perfect proving ground for experimental technology with a potential to kill many,many kittens if/when the A.I. becomes self aware. Maybe he was and advanced Dr. in machine learning psychology?
ScaniaUltimate:
Do we even have driver-less trains yet?
It is not the ability of the technology that matters, but the real world application - and that often fails to deliver (unlike us).
Four lines on the London Underground system have automatically driven trains, the driver is there simply to close the doors and take control in the event of an emergency.
ScaniaUltimate:
Do we even have driver-less trains yet?
It is not the ability of the technology that matters, but the real world application - and that often fails to deliver (unlike us).
Yes I’m sure we do… The Docklands Lite Railway in London has 'em. I remember passengers early on would refuse to get on them due to perceived safety issues. I haven’t lived there for many decades, so I’m not sure if they’ve had any incidents or if they decided to put human drivers back in 'em or not.
Harry Monk:
ScaniaUltimate:
Do we even have driver-less trains yet?
It is not the ability of the technology that matters, but the real world application - and that often fails to deliver (unlike us).
Four lines on the London Underground system have automatically driven trains, the driver is there simply to close the doors and take control in the event of an emergency.
That gives us an idea of more realistic timelines.
Driver-less train technology is decades old & only being used in a minimal section of the railway system.
There still seems to be a need or preference to keep a human around ‘just in case’.
Railways (& trains) have a very small fraction of the variability that roads (& haulage) have.
