Autonomous Trucks are Right Around The Corner

According to a Forbes article posted on February 13, 2019, autonomous trucks are right around the corner with a company now gaining unicorn status in their recent round of funding.

There are many questions when it comes to autonomous vehicles, but how do see it affecting the shipment of your products? Is this a good step toward the current need of truck drivers? How will a company track these types of shipments? With driver to dispatcher communication currently so important in many transactions, a transportation managment solution will need to be put in place for when this becomes normal business routine. The attached article explains that “long-haul trucks…don’t have to deal with pedestrians, bicycles, or as much environmental complexity as do vehicles making their way through dense urban settings.” Is this true when looking at it from your company’s perspective?

While on the highway, it is true that these trucks would rarely have to deal with these environmental factors. There are many companies located in urban settings though. It is noted in the article that these autonomous trucks would work and rely fully on cameras. Is this feasible out on the open road? When looking at how this would work for long-hauls with a final destination in an urban setting, there are many experiments with passenger cars that could affect how this part of the haul is handled. Until there are better outcomes on city and surburban autonomous vehicles, we may be seeing companies hiring people to meet these trucks and complete the short-haul portion of the loads. Companies are starting to really gain momentum financially to fully test these systems and bring us into the “sooner than later” future of transportation. I am excited to see how soon is soon!