In most cases, robots will take on the most tedious and dangerous tasks first. In the trucking industry, there is no such thing as an exception.
Currently, the focus of autonomous driving engineers is on long-distance freight transport, with the exception of slow curves or E-ZPass lanes. As a result, self-driving cars will have an easier time navigating certain roads.
Infrastructure is likely to be the major problem. Short trips to and from an interstate from a manufacturing facility or distribution hub are typically much trickier than longer ones. As soon as the vehicle leaves the freeway, the same holds true As a first step, trucking companies could build up transfer stations at either end of the route, where human drivers would take care of the hard first leg of the journey and then attach their cargo to robot rigs for the exhausting middle part. At the exit, another station would transfer the freight to an analogue truck for delivery.
About 90% of long-haul truck drivers in the United States might be replaced by such a system, according to a new study from the University of Michigan.
According to co-author and Ph.D. candidate in engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University Aniruddh Mohan, “When we talked to truck drivers, literally every one responded, ‘Yes, this aspect of the job can be automated.'” “We expected them to be a little more wary,” a coworker said.
However, there are a few huge ifs.
For starters, autonomous systems would have to improve their ability to navigate in bad weather. As a second point, several states’ regulators have yet to provide permission for robot drilling rigs. As a last consideration, all of the transfer stations where caffeine-fueled analogue data is passed on to algorithms must be taken into account.
Trucking companies could, however, offset 10% of human driving if they concentrated on America’s Sun Belt, according to a research. It would be possible to automate half the country’s trucking hours if the robots were deployed nationwide, but only in the summer months.
According to co-author and assistant professor of climate and energy at the University of Michigan, Parth Vaishnav, “it’s already happening, although in a rather restricted way. In the United States, 3.3 million people work as truck drivers, yet many leave the industry after a few years. Long-distance tasks, in particular, are among the most difficult to handle. Not only do they take up a lot of time, but they’re among the least lucrative. Long-haul truckers work an average of 300 days per year and earn $47,000; short-haul routes are more difficult and hence pay more and attract more experienced drivers.
The long-haul workforce, not surprisingly, changes hands every year or two. According to the American Trucking Associations, the sector is currently short 61,000 drivers. As Vaishnav put it, “In our mind, we perceive these as middle-class jobs, but that hasn’t been the case for a long time.