First of all, the possibility of automatic driving car technology being realized in the field of 'long distance truck', the reason and merit?

The automatic driving car technology which is being developed to target the introduction of the 2020s may be put to practical use in the world of transport industry such as trailers and trucks that carry a part of logistics prior to general passenger cars . " Consumer Reports " of criticisms and media supported from long ago in the United States summarizes why automatic driving cars should be put to practical use in the transportation industry and its merits.

Should Tractor - Trailer Trucks Be Self - Driving? - Consumer Reports
https://www.consumerreports.org/autonomous-driving/should-tractor-trailer-trucks-be-self-driving/

In the field of automated driving trucks, Daimler and Volvo of major automobile manufacturers, and Waymo, Uber, Tesla etc of emerging manufacturers are developing to realize fully automatic operation truck. A demonstration that shows that it has already reached the level of technology at a stage close to practical use has already been carried out and Uber will operate a large trailer loaded with 45,000 cans of Budweiser in 2016 for about 160 km We have succeeded in transporting goods.

Uber succeeded in transporting for the first automatic driving truck, and the baggage that he carried was 45,000 cans of Budweiser - GIGAZINE

In addition, Tesla, which generally released a semiautomatic operation function "auto pilot" in advance of other companies, in September 2017 announced the all electric trailer "Semi" with the view to operation in automatic operation, and started production in 2019 I aim for it.

Tesla announces all electric trailer "Semi", with automatic operation, intense acceleration power, accident prevention function etc. Production commenced in 2019 - GIGAZINE

McKinsey & Company of the consulting firm predicts that one third of the trucks sold in new cars in the US will come by 2025 when the era of sophisticated automatic driving function is installed. Also, including automatic driving support technology at a level that highly supports the driver's driving, it seems to be said that it will be a sure situation that more automatic driving trucks will be on the market.

Some companies that are developing automated driving trucks are targeting the practical application of "hybrid type" automatic driving truck, where human drivers and in-vehicle AIs are responsible for driving each other. For this type of automatic driving truck, human drivers are in charge of driving on ordinary roads such as urban areas, and when entering the expressway AI will take over driving. At this time, the driver will play the role of monitoring the operation by AI, but at the same time it will be possible to proceed with work such as organizing documents that were impossible during normal driving.

The industry group "American Trucking Associations (USA Trucking Association)" believes that the operation of trucks by the automatic driving function is very similar to monitoring aircraft pilots during automatic piloting. In the majority of modern passenger aircraft, human pilots are mainly responsible for takeoff and landing stages, but when cruising continuously flying towards their destinations, entering via points in coordinates Most of the time you do automatic computer navigation. It seems that the situation similar to this will be taken in even an automatic driving truck.

Dave Osiecki, CEO of Scopelitis Transportation Consulting Group that monitors legal regulations concerning the truck industry, said that many people in the industry accepted automated driving trucks as reality visited in the next five to ten years span , And the limited automatic driving trucks such as "highway limited" will be realized sooner.

The point that Mr. Osiecki is paying attention is the possibility that the driver's death accident on the highway is greatly reduced due to the realization of the automatic driving truck. "As the aging of automatic driving technology progresses, the incidence of fatal accidents will decrease soon," Osiecki says.

On the other hand, Mr. Osiecki also looks at the point that the automatic driving technique is not necessarily perfect. Industry associations are looking at tens of thousands of truck drivers to be saved each year through automatic driving trucks, while still showing that they are inevitable that hundreds of drivers will die.

"Securing America 's Future Energy" group pursuing technology innovation related to the latest energy saving shows the view that the truck industry will be the "early adapter" of automatic driving technology. In the United States where the truck carries most of the logistics, the reason is that a lot of goods are being transported by the highway network connecting the whole country. Automatic driving car seems to be strongly convincing for the view that it is not an urban area where various complicated situations await, but is put to practical use at the highway transportation site where there is a simpler situation at first .

By Justin.li