Introducing Autonomous Vehicles in Logistics a Review From a Broad Perspective

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Truck makers and tech startups continue to make progress in their pursuit of democratic trucks, but moving this elusive technology past the testing and development phase to wide commercialization will require a great deal of integration work.

Manufacturers, suppliers and automatic vehicle developers volition demand to piece together a complex combination of software, sensors and new components to safely introduce fully self-driving trucks on the nation'southward highways.

Most of the attention naturally goes to the automated driving software that enables autonomous operation, every bit well as the onboard sensors — such as lidar, radar and cameras — that monitor the vehicle'due south surroundings.

Clevenger

Just self-driving trucks also will require a new set of safety components to enable SAE Level 4 automated driving, where the vehicle can bulldoze itself with no human input or intervention — at least under certain weather condition.

Without the safety blanket of a driver behind the wheel to serve as a fallback, Level iv trucks will require redundant braking, steering and powertrain control systems to ensure condom in the event of a component failure, developers say.

That will exist one of the central challenges that truck manufacturers and automatic driving companies will demand to address through joint evolution efforts.

1 prominent example is the recently announced partnership betwixt Daimler Trucks and autonomous driving programmer Waymo. The companies have prepare out to produce Class 8 Freightliner models piloted by the Waymo Driver.

Waymo, which began as the Google Self-Driving Automobile Project in 2009, has introduced a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Phoenix using modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans outfitted with backup braking, steering and power systems.

The same type of modifications volition demand to happen with cocky-driving Class 8 trucks, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said on a call announcing the agreement with Daimler.

That means truck makers and Tier i suppliers kickoff will need to develop and mass produce those redundant components, and that won't happen overnight.

The task of developing and deploying Level 4 trucks likewise volition require a major leap forward from the Level two driver-assist capabilities entering the market today. The latest advanced driver assist systems, which now comprise automated braking, dispatch and steering functions, still require the driver to remain actively engaged at all times.

Krafcik said highly automated Level four systems will not simply evolve from today's driver-assist systems.

"There is really no path from L2 to L4," he said. "There's a huge chasm. It's a completely different development mindset."

Safety, of form, will be paramount to whatsoever successful rollout of cocky-driving trucks.

"We volition not release a vehicle for Level 4 operation until nosotros are admittedly convinced that information technology is safe to operate," said Roger Nielsen, CEO of Daimler Trucks Northward America.

In addition to its partnership with Waymo, DTNA also is testing and developing Level four trucks in conjunction with its Torc Robotics subsidiary.

Other applied science developers and truck makers also accept been teaming upwards to tackle the democratic truck challenge by integrating automated-driving systems with commercial vehicles. TuSimple, for 1, has partnered with Navistar and Traton Group to develop self-driving trucks in North America and Europe. At the same time, Volvo Trucks and Paccar Inc., the parent of Kenworth and Peterbilt, also have been investing in various forms of automated driving capabilities.

In any discussion of autonomous trucks, it's important to think that this technology will not remove the need for professional drivers. If developers succeed in bringing Level 4 trucks to market, these vehicles will be designed for specific applications that are well suited to automation.

In that location's no dubiousness that drivers will remain absolutely essential to the trucking manufacture for as long every bit we tin realistically envision.

In the future, though, truck drivers may someday share the road and swap trailers with autonomous trucks.

For that vision to go a reality, manufacturers, suppliers and tech developers all will play an important role in pushing Level 4 trucks beyond testing and development to commercialization and factory production.

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Source: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/assembling-autonomous-truck