MEETING TRUCK AUTONOMY HURDLES HEAD-ON

Combining sensors, inter-vehicle communications and controllers poses major challenges in the effort to bring greater levels of automation to commercial trucking.

Myriad technical challenges and a few non-technical issues face those tasked with creating the systems that let trucks operate without humans to improve efficiency and address the driver shortage. Design teams will have to add vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications and integrate sensors and controllers while keeping an eye on regulatory and insurance hurdles.

Some observers feel that long-haul trucking may be among the early adopters of autonomous technologies, since much commercial driving is on highways, which can be simpler to navigate than urban environments that have more challenges such as bicycles and pedestrians. The efficiency improvements that come when drivers don't have to constantly control trucks will be attractive to many owners.