Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/625735
commercial carrier journal | january 2016 23 improvements and a serious cut in your commute time. When the majority of ve- hicles around you are talking and working together, you may see traffic jams become a thing of the past. When I talk about autonomous trucks today, the reactions always are loaded with angst. Drivers one day will focus on what they're supposed to do and sit for hours behind a steering wheel while a truck drives itself down the road – assuming that they're not wondering if the truck simply will not need a driver anymore and that they'll be looking for a job. But there is more at stake with autono- mous vehicles than simply giving drivers an occasional break. When you start thinking about the wider implications, you start to understand the massive gains in efficiency and time that this technology could deliver. We're far from having the integrated infrastructure and number of autono- mous vehicles needed to kill congestion. But the idea high- lights how autonomous vehicle control soon could help drivers and fleets make more money, reduce stress and ensure on- time deliveries – and a quicker return home. No more traffic jams? Autonomous trucks could help keep everyone moving A few weeks back, I flew into Dallas for a Peterbilt test drive at the company's headquarters in Denton, about 30 miles outside of Big D. The Dallas-Fort Worth urban area is the nation's fourth-largest munici- pality, home to about 7 million people. As I'd landed just ahead of rush hour, it looked to me that at least half of those people were sitting in cars inching along the spaghetti snarl of interstates that surround DFW airport. Like many of you, I loathe traffic jams. They are simply the biggest waste of time, energy and resources on the planet today. It's flat as a pancake around Dallas, so I easily could see 10 miles in any given direc- tion as the plane was landing. The setting sun graced an endless sea of headlights and taillights glowing in the dusk. Traffic congestion is a complex issue with many contributing influences, but one of the biggest in play is the human factor. People just don't do well in heavy traffic; we grow frustrated, unsure of which lane is best. While some folks do know which exit they need – probably four clogged lanes to the right – no one has any idea what the other cars and trucks around them intend to do, so essentially we all have to wing it. It's horribly inefficient and devolves quickly into a modern-day accordion nightmare of sit, go, wait, brake, gas it and sit again. But what happens when a certain percentage of the vehicles sitting around you in any given traffic jam are autonomous vehicles? What if those vehicles are communicating in real time with each other and talking to the road system as well? Does introducing any level of artificial intelligence-generated efficiency to a snarled interstate immediately produce smoother traffic flow and reduced commute times? Or given the fact that humans are really good at creating cha- os, would we overwhelm the computers and make things even worse? The answers probably would lie in how many autonomous vehicles are in the mix. If 25 percent of the cars around you in a massive traffic jam are being controlled autonomously, maybe you see a few small increases in traffic flow. Maybe if half the cars are being driven by robotic systems, you start to see real product reviews, oeM & supplier news, and equipMent ManageMent trends by Jack roberts JACK ROBERTS is Executive Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jroberts@ccjmagazine.com or call (205) 248-1358. No patieNce: traffic jams are the big- gest waste of time, energy and resources on the planet today. complex issue: one of the biggest contributing influences in traffic conges- tion is the human factor. artificial iNtelligeNce: would introducing it to a snarled interstate produce smoother traffic flow?