Trucks leading the way on the road toward self-driving vehicles

Pairs of radar-equipped trucks connected by computer barrelling down the highway about 20 metres apart could be on the long road toward driverless vehicles.

These semi-trailer “platoons” are already allowed in nine American states, with software linking the truck safety systems so they can operate more closely than normal while the drivers handle steering.

The president of Edmonton’s Sil Industrial Minerals says she had hoped early testing of the technology would happen in Alberta, and while that didn’t happen she still feels the potential for such equipment is huge.

“It’s a step toward automated vehicles. It’s not just for our business — (it’s for) pretty much any business that’s going to operate, especially manufacturers that are inside a landlocked region like Alberta,” Marlea Sleeman said Thursday.

Sleeman, whose company works with fleets of hundreds of trucks daily, was part of a freight hauling panel at an automated vehicle symposium organized by the Conference Board of Canada.

Drafting between the two trucks, and running them at the most efficient speed, cuts fuel consumption, emissions and maintenance costs, while improving safety, she said.

“The push toward automated vehicles is where the future is going.”

Other panellists said long-haul trucking is a prime sector to automate because it often uses highspeed, limited-access highways where there’s less chance of unexpected trouble than on busy city streets.

They expect advancing technology will help with a looming labour shortage by making trucking and shipping jobs more attractive to younger workers, especially for an industry that’s growing as home delivery replaces brick-and-mortar stores

But there are potholes along the way.

“They exist at mines and the Calgary Zoo, but to get them out on the road … we just don’t see it happening any time soon,” said Chris Nash, president of the Alberta Motor Transport Association.

Dan Baxter, Stantec’s chief transportation systems engineer in Denver, said the rise of selfdriving vehicles doesn’t necessarily mean life will be simpler.

He found operating a near-autonomous BMW last year complicated.

“At the end of this drive I was exhilarated, the car was doing so well, and I was exhausted.”

In one California trial, people couldn’t understand why automated trucks kept stopping until they realized blowing leaves were confusing the radar, he said.

“Testing, testing, testing, testing is what we want to see at this point … The technology is coming fast as soon as the price comes down.”