Trucking Could See Big Changes From Technology Advancements

This story appears in the Dec. 9 print edition of Transport Topics.

IRVING, Texas — Developments in safety technology have the potential to dramatically change the trucking industry, perhaps eventually leading to driverless trucks, technology leaders told fleet executives here at a meeting organized by American Trucking Associations.

Anthony Levandowski, engineering director for Google’s driverless car project, said he believes unmanned vehicle technology will make its way to the freight transportation industry.

“I think the technology will naturally evolve into trucks,” he said during the opening day of ATA’s Executive Summit on Technology-Driven Performance on Dec. 4-6. “We think this technology is a great benefit to society and want to encourage it.”

Google is not working on a product for trucking, but the company has developed technology that enables a car to drive itself for large segments of a trip by sensing its surroundings with a laser mounted atop the vehicle and utilizing an onboard computer, he said.

The automated system can react more quickly and is safer than a human driver, Levandowski said, adding that Google aims to offer a driverless car for the consumer market within four years.

While unmanned trucks are not yet a reality, systems designed to assist the driver are on the market.

Examples include collision avoidance and electronic stability control systems, and more of those types of technologies are being developed and tested.

Josh Switkes, CEO of Peloton Technology Inc., said his company soon will offer a system that can “link” a pair of trucks and synchronize their braking as they travel along a highway, with one truck following at a set distance.

This “platooning” system uses radar and vehicle-to-vehicle communications to prevent accidents by automatically engaging the brakes while conserving fuel by reducing aerodynamic drag, he said.

Switkes said Peloton recently worked with C.R. England Inc. to conduct a fuel-efficiency test for the technology. At a 36-foot following distance, the front truck achieved fuel savings of 4.5% and the rear truck 10%, he said. England operates the 19th largest fleet in North America, according to Transport Topics’ Top 100 ranking of for-hire fleets.

Commercial pilots of the Peloton system are due to begin in 2014.

In his opening remarks, ATA President Bill Graves said technology can enable fleets to “work smarter” as they take steps to improve safety and fuel efficiency, offer better service and do a better job of recruiting, training and retaining drivers.

“I can go through a long list of the challenges we face, and in every instance, simply working harder to address those concerns simply isn’t going to be enough to get it done. It’s going to be about working smarter,” Graves said.

The event follows on ATA’s first executive summit a year earlier, examining the prospects of natural gas as a trucking fuel.

Chunka Mui, an author and CEO of Devil’s Advocate Group, said the driving force behind the development of autonomous vehicles has not been trucks, but the improvement of safety for passenger cars.

However, that technology also represents a “great opportunity” for commercial vehicles, he said.

“What’s being developed in cars is almost completely applicable to trucks,” Mui said. “To some extent, it’s more applicable for trucks because you spend more of your time in predictable driving environments than passenger vehicles.”

The benefits extend beyond safety, he said.

Mui cited a study by Morgan Stanley Research estimating that large-scale adoption of autonomous vehicles could save the U.S. trucking industry $168 billion per year by cutting labor and fuel costs, preventing accidents and improving productivity.

Fleets have a lot of time to plan and prepare before driverless trucks reach the market, “but that doesn’t mean it’s time to wait,” he said. “It’s time to experiment; it’s time to learn.”

Switkes said he believes un-manned trucks are “a long way off” but sees “great potential” for the development of additional technologies to help drivers. “I see that being a large, fertile ground for years to come,” he said.

After the session, Scott Romans, president of Romans Motor Freight Inc. in Omaha, Neb., said he sees “a lot of potential” for systems such as Peloton’s connected trucks, but predicted more resistance to the concept of a fully autonomous truck.