Self-driving big-rigs moving up quickly
Trucks that operate with minimal driver involvement are being tested now
MINNEAPOLIS — From behind the wheel of his big rig, Eric Feehan can’t quite envision a future when 18-wheelers drive themselves.
“There are so many variables, I don’t think anybody’s going to make it work,” the Minnesota truck driver said during a break in Sparks, Nev.
In 24 years on the road, Feehan has learned that it takes experience and instinct to react when your truck is buffeted by 40 m.p.h. winds, to sense the moment when wet highways turn to ice, or to anticipate when a car is going to swerve in front of you.
“There’s no way they’re ever going to program that into a selfdriving truck,” said Feehan, who lives near the Twin Cities and regularly drives to Arizona and California.
They’re working on it, though. While advancements in autonomous — or self-driving — cars get much of the attention, development of self-driving commercial vehicles is speeding forward. Complex questions involving safety, security, liability, regulations and infrastructure remain, making widespread use years away, but trucks that operate with minimal driver involvement are being tested now.
Embark Technology, a company in San Francisco founded by University of Waterloo students, recently ran a semi-truck for two hours without human intervention on a highway in California. Tesla will unveil an electric autonomous semi on Oct. 26, and most major truck makers are working on versions.
The Trump administration is encouraging progress with what it calls a “nonregulatory approach” to autonomous vehicles, which means that it wants as few rules as possible. That has exacerbated some safety concerns.
“When we’re talking about vehicles ... the size of a house going 70 miles per hour down our freeways,” said Jason Levine of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety in Washington, “there’s a real concern that the technology isn’t ready yet to be released into the wild.”
In the early stages, experts say, some kind of technician or operator would still be in the cab. But the end goal is a truck that could drive itself.
Proponents note that 94 per cent of traffic deaths are caused by human error. In theory, there would be fewer as self-driving vehicles multiply.
“This technology is not just coming; it’s here,” said John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association, which has a task force on autonomous vehicles that met for the first time in September.
Congress and the Trump administration are taking steps to keep up with the future of transportation:
On Sept. 6, the U.S. House passed a bill that didn’t deal with trucks, but would loosen regulations for autonomous cars, allowing companies to test up to 100,000 of them on regular roads, even if they don’t meet federal safety standards. It also would prevent states from banning selfdriving cars.
On Sept. 12, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released guidelines that advise makers of self-driving cars that they can submit safety assessments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but they aren’t mandatory.
Levine disapproves of the administration’s hands-off approach to managing the burgeoning industry. “The regulatory structure exists to create the guardrails for safety,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not seeing an administration that wants to take the lead on this.”
On Sept. 13, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee debated whether trucks should be included in its bill encouraging innovation by allowing exemptions from some federal regulations.
The committee approved the bill earlier this month. It excludes commercial trucks from provisions that would allow more autonomous cars on roads, but includes light trucks — a class that includes vans, pickups and SUVs.
At the hearing, Ken Hall of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters told senators not to forget “the potential impact on the livelihoods and wages of millions of your constituents.” Jobs, he said, should be considered “at the outset of this discussion, not after the fact.”
Investment company Goldman Sachs projected in May that autonomous cars could replace 6.2 million professional drivers by 2030. The trucking industry is experiencing a national driver shortage.
Hausladen said that autonomous trucks could alleviate the shortfall, but added that “critical driver functions aren’t going away.” Gary Pressley, president of Heavy Metal Truck Training in suburban Minneapolis, said that as technology evolves, so will operators’ roles. “The next phase might be that the driver becomes a technician,” he said. That could attract young, tech-savvy drivers, but also would require advanced training.