I truly believe self-driving for trucks on freeways would be a net society gain to get rid of this nonsense. Truckers should just pickup shipments at hubs for local delivery where their expertise delivers more value.
how expensive (and paperwork intensive) is it in Europe (or other places with functional train infrastructure) for the average person to ship one 20ft container by rail?
We don’t need self-driving trucks for this. This is already how intermodal shipping works: a driver picks up a container and takes it to a rail yard, it gets loaded onto a train, and then when it gets near enough to where it’s going, another driver takes it from the rail yard for final delivery.
The reasons for not doing intermodal are the same as not being able to do self-driving trucks: oversize loads, document-controlled shipments (haz-mats, for example), and mixed deliveries along a route. Almost everything else could be put on a train, but it would take some infrastructure upgrades and likely unattainable levels of cooperation from shippers.
Hell even the delivery along routes issue is one that can and has been solved in the past. The railway post office sorted mail en route for by postal clerks and existed as late as the 1970s, because Nixon was from SoCal and we really like our trains. While it may not be fully applicable it could still work for smaller liquid sort items, as for larger carriage specific ones I’m aware of at least one railyard that used to have those ones unlatched and moved as needed within a 5 minute period not accounting for stopping.
I’ve often wondered why every new passenger vehicle sold in the US over the past decade or so has sensors that let you know if there’s something in your blind spot, but semis are not using this technology even though they have much larger blind spots. I would think you’d see trucks adopting this other safety equipment before they go full self-driving.
Those blind spot sensors are mounted in the back of the vehicle. That doesn’t work for towed trailers. You would have to use a different sensor technology than the current cheap/simple/reliable sonar sensors.
First, trucks have longer breaking distances which a lot of sensors aren’t designed for. Second, many trucks carry trailers which are provided by others, so sensors are likely not going to be attached.
And further more, this entire thread is bullshit as I am a trucker and my 2023 Volvo has the most annoyingly realistic car horn sound anytime I flip on a blinker with a car beside me. They’ve been in semi trucks for quite some time now, over 10 years at least if memory serves. We also have forward tracking radar that only rarely slams on the breaks when going under an overpass as well!
That’s why I’m focusing on highway travel: it’s the more controlled environment. The fact that car companies are offering hands-free highway driving is evidence of that. Local roads are a much more complex problem, and that’s where a human driver is much more capable.
So, like, automated truck driving on the highway, then they pull into a trucking hub for delivery drivers to take over once they reach their destination city? hmmm interesting
That’s generally been considered the first step to fully automated trucking, yeah. Autonomous on the highway, then to a hub where a human takes over the last mile type stuff that requires more skill. Or you could even just have regional hubs that then break it down into smaller trucks for local delivery, reducing the need for full size 53’ trucks in town at all.
You need fewer drivers overall, need almost no long haul drivers since drivers would be local to the area and only handle the in town stuff, and don’t have to worry about seat time limits on the highway.
It would also make going full electric on semis easier.
I truly believe self-driving for trucks on freeways would be a net society gain to get rid of this nonsense. Truckers should just pickup shipments at hubs for local delivery where their expertise delivers more value.
You just reinvented trains, but with more public in the way.
Ideally, it should be, but this would be more likely to happen in the US.
Eh, if the public has all been replaced by AI, they won’t have money to go anywhere.
how expensive (and paperwork intensive) is it in Europe (or other places with functional train infrastructure) for the average person to ship one 20ft container by rail?
We don’t need self-driving trucks for this. This is already how intermodal shipping works: a driver picks up a container and takes it to a rail yard, it gets loaded onto a train, and then when it gets near enough to where it’s going, another driver takes it from the rail yard for final delivery.
The reasons for not doing intermodal are the same as not being able to do self-driving trucks: oversize loads, document-controlled shipments (haz-mats, for example), and mixed deliveries along a route. Almost everything else could be put on a train, but it would take some infrastructure upgrades and likely unattainable levels of cooperation from shippers.
Hell even the delivery along routes issue is one that can and has been solved in the past. The railway post office sorted mail en route for by postal clerks and existed as late as the 1970s, because Nixon was from SoCal and we really like our trains. While it may not be fully applicable it could still work for smaller liquid sort items, as for larger carriage specific ones I’m aware of at least one railyard that used to have those ones unlatched and moved as needed within a 5 minute period not accounting for stopping.
I’ve often wondered why every new passenger vehicle sold in the US over the past decade or so has sensors that let you know if there’s something in your blind spot, but semis are not using this technology even though they have much larger blind spots. I would think you’d see trucks adopting this other safety equipment before they go full self-driving.
Those blind spot sensors are mounted in the back of the vehicle. That doesn’t work for towed trailers. You would have to use a different sensor technology than the current cheap/simple/reliable sonar sensors.
First, trucks have longer breaking distances which a lot of sensors aren’t designed for. Second, many trucks carry trailers which are provided by others, so sensors are likely not going to be attached.
Right, but the sensors can be designed for semis, and the trailers should have the sensors just like they have brake lights.
I just said that the sensors don’t have the range, which means they can’t be.
There also isn’t a standard sensor layout.
And further more, this entire thread is bullshit as I am a trucker and my 2023 Volvo has the most annoyingly realistic car horn sound anytime I flip on a blinker with a car beside me. They’ve been in semi trucks for quite some time now, over 10 years at least if memory serves. We also have forward tracking radar that only rarely slams on the breaks when going under an overpass as well!
If you could make self driving reliable you’d have a good point. Currently that tech isn’t good enough, and may never be.
The problem is that ground travel is uncontrolled space, and there is very little room for error.
That’s why I’m focusing on highway travel: it’s the more controlled environment. The fact that car companies are offering hands-free highway driving is evidence of that. Local roads are a much more complex problem, and that’s where a human driver is much more capable.
Yes, if we destroy ourselves some other way before we get there. Otherwise it’s absolutely going to be.
Highway driving is the easiest to get right though. There are plenty of cars out there already that can handle the highway autonomously just fine.
So, like, automated truck driving on the highway, then they pull into a trucking hub for delivery drivers to take over once they reach their destination city? hmmm interesting
That’s generally been considered the first step to fully automated trucking, yeah. Autonomous on the highway, then to a hub where a human takes over the last mile type stuff that requires more skill. Or you could even just have regional hubs that then break it down into smaller trucks for local delivery, reducing the need for full size 53’ trucks in town at all.
You need fewer drivers overall, need almost no long haul drivers since drivers would be local to the area and only handle the in town stuff, and don’t have to worry about seat time limits on the highway.
It would also make going full electric on semis easier.