Autonomous Semis to Begin Hauling in 2024
For years, self-driving vehicles were only found in sci-fi novels and the imagination.
The idea of cruising on autopilot while you read emails or enjoy the scenery seemed like a dream. Now, these concepts are becoming real, not just for personal travel but also for freight carriers.
When and Where It’s Happening
Aurora Innovation Inc. has plans to begin hauling freight on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston later this year. The catch is that this will be done with twenty fully autonomous, self-driving vehicles. This comes as a big step for the company, as it has hauled over one million on public highways since 2021, but with a human “safety driver” also in the vehicle, ready to take control in cases of emergency. These new trucks will have twenty-five laser, radar, and camera sensors to help them detect hazards, other vehicles, and pedestrians while carrying freight for companies like FedEx, Uber Freight, and Werner. Aurora hopes to profit by late 2027 or early 2028 by deploying thousands of trucks and charging per-mile.
They plan to start in Texas because it has some of the least icy roads in the country. These self-driving trucks will be limited to an “operational design domain” (ODD), which means they will operate on specific, repeatable routes that are safe for autonomous driving. More complex routes and challenging driving conditions, like bad weather and rough terrain, will still require human drivers.
Will Autonomous Vehicles Lead to a Loss of Jobs?
Many drivers worry that self-driving trucks will take away their jobs, but companies like Aurora say otherwise.
To quote an article from the Washington Post from March 31st, 2024,
“A 2021 study from the Transportation Department suggests concerns about widespread job loss may be misplaced. Autonomous trucking could at most lead to 11,000 layoffs in the next five years, the study says – less than 2% of the long-haul driver workforce.”
Companies like Aurora claim that their goal is to help drivers, not hurt them. The freight industry has an estimated shortage of 64,000 drivers. With supply and demand both steadily increasing, and because of the ODD restrictions on these trucks, human drivers will be needed more than ever with autonomous trucks working alongside them to ease the burden of an increasing workload.
Public Safety Concerns
But public opinion is not so easily changed. A January poll by AAA found that 66% of Americans are afraid of riding in a self-driving vehicle. This fear has grown due to incidents like Amazon’s “Zoox” self-driving taxi unit being involved in two accidents and a “Cruise” autonomous vehicle pinning a woman to the ground in San Francisco last October.
Despite these incidents, Aurora’s CEO, Chris Urmson, emphasizes that safety is the top priority. He believes that for the public and customers to accept self-driving trucks, they must be safe. Urmson states, “We want there to be thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road… and to do that, we have to be safe. It’s the only way that the public will accept it. Frankly, it’s the only way our customers will accept it. If we put a vehicle on the road that isn’t sufficiently safe – that we aren’t confident in the safety of – then it kills everything else.”
Aurora also argues that their autonomous trucks will be safer than human-driven ones. Their lasers and radar can “see” farther than humans and aren’t affected by fatigue, distractions, or substance use. Although there are almost no regulations for autonomous vehicles, federal agencies can recall or stop trucks that are deemed unsafe.
Urmson claims that since 2021, Aurora’s vehicles have been in three crashes, none of which were their fault. Federal databases support this and show that ten other autonomous vehicles from different companies were also found not at fault in similar crashes.
The Trucking Industry May Be Changing Soon
What this means for the future of the freight industry is still unclear. There is potential for self-driving trucks to help struggling truckers and keep the industry running smoothly, but it’s uncertain how well autonomous machines will work alongside human drivers regarding safety and job security. One thing is clear: the future seems closer than we thought.
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