Autonomous Trucks Rules, technology to be determined
By Steve Brawner Contributing Writer
In 2007, the first iPhone went
on sale. By 2015, according to the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of American adults owned a smartphone. In 2015, an autonomous truck
drove itself across the Hoover Dam with two people on board. Does that mean that, in less than
a decade, the trucking industry will be dominated by autonomous trucks? Probably not. We’re still at the phase where those trucks produce more ques- tions than answers. How quickly will the motor carrier industry follow the cell phone industry’s example and adopt the new technology? How must the reg- ulatory climate change? And what other challenges will remain? Autonomous technology has been
around a long time – think cruise con- trol – and has spread to mechanical systems throughout the truck in recent years. Today’s trucks have lane depar- ture warning systems, automatic brak- ing, and they’ll even inflate the tires on the road. The mining industry, too, has self-driving vehicles that operate in off- road situations But in May 2015, the technology
advanced to a new level when Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval granted the first license for an autonomous commercial truck to drive on an American public highway. To introduce the technol- ogy, Daimler Trucks North America rented Hoover Dam, and a Freightliner Inspiration Truck drove itself across it. A
ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 4 2016
video accompanying the event featured a driver letting go of the wheel to work on a tablet. Martin Daum, president and CEO, said in a speech then that the technology would change the driver’s duties. “He would become a logistics manager while driving,” he said. With a special permit from the
Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, the Freightliner Inspiration Truck can be driven on public roads near Las Vegas. Nevada is one of four states, along with the District of Columbia, with laws regulating autonomous vehicles. The truck operates under what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines as a Level 3 capability, meaning the driver can cede control in certain conditions. The truck has sensors, camera technol- ogy and radar systems that allow it to maintain speed, remain in the lane and
keep a safe distance from other vehicles. The driver is in control of highway exits, driving on local roads and docking. But Daimler also says it will be
years before the trucks will be on the road.
The American Trucking
Associations sees the technology’s ben- efits and challenges and is in the pro- cess of developing a policy – or, possibly, not developing one, depending on the membership’s desires, said Ted Scott, ATA director of engineering. “These guys are pretty free market,”
he said. “I think we would probably have some policy that says you’ve got to allow the research to progress and the technology to be tested, that you’ve got to have uniformity among the states along corridors for automated opera-
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