By: AB G
Driverless trucks have just started to appear on highways because of the partnership with U.S. Express and Kodiak Robotics. Truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road and delivering items takes multiple days and sometimes weeks. By eliminating drivers and replacing them new technology, shipping will take less time.
Even though trucks have no people in their driver’s seat, there still must be a “safety driver” inside the vehicle. In case of a flat tire or an accident on the road, current technology has not quite developed well enough to stop for that. If any thing went wrong, for example, if a truck tried to get off at the wrong exit a “safety driver” could grab the wheel and change lanes.
Right now, the average delivery trip take around 10 days for a driver to bring a package from Los Angeles to New York City. This is a lot of time. Since us humans must stop to eat food, go to the bathroom, fill up gas, etc., time adds up. Driverless trucks can make a trip almost without stopping to cut the time in half, taking 5 days. “The biggest problems for long-haul truckers are fatigue, distraction and boredom,” Alex Rodrigues, the chief executive of the self-driving-truck start up, explained. Hopefully, driverless trucks will cut down on these dangers and make safer, faster trips.
There is still so much work for these scientists to do and so much for them to figure out and problem solve. Since most trucks run on gasoline, their tank will eventually become less and less full and they will need to get gas. Without a “safety driver” inside the car to pump it, they may not be able to go for a long distance. Another alternative would be electric cars but you will still need to charge their batteries.
This change may be good for consumers, but might be worse for the actual drivers. Each truck driver gets paid by the hour and shorter trips would mean a lower wage. Many drivers are scared because they realize they might not make as much money for driving shorter periods.
Sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/28/business/driverless-trucks-highways.html