Content area
Full Text
Is the self-driving truck this century's flying car, or is it a true technological breakthrough that will transform the lives of drivers and the operations of fleets that employ them?
Tough question, and the answer depends on who you ask. Lawyers and legislators will certainly have a say in the future of self-driving trucks and other vehicles on our roadways. And some thorny issues around drivers themselves will also need to be addressed if we're ever going to realize the promise. But when it comes to the technology, we pretty much have the answer already.
Before we get to that answer, though, we need some definition. As with most complex new technologies, there's confusion over what's actually meant by a self-driving truck, or what is more correctly called an autonomous truck by the engineering community.
What we're really talking about is a group of technologies that can be combined in a variety of ways to create levels of automation that relieve a driver of different responsibilities under a wide range of circumstances.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) formally divides vehicle automation into five levels. NHTSA's Level 0 is no automation at all, with the auto or truck driver in complete and sole control of the vehicle at all times. Level 1 adds automation for specific control functions, with technologies such as electronic stability control or ABS. Level 2 extends that by combining two or more of those systems to take over control from the driver in specific situations. NHTSA's example of a Level 2 vehicle is one where adaptive cruise control is combined with a lane sensing system to keep it centered in its lane and traveling at the same speed as the vehicle in front of it.
THE NEXT LEVEL
What most of us would think of as a self-driving truck is classified as Level 3 by NHTSA, or what it calls "limited self-driving automation." At Level 3, a driver could turn over full control of the vehicle under the right conditions for long periods of time. The vehicle monitors conditions around it and when necessary turns control back to the driver, who is always available. Trucks that could drive themselves on highways either alone or in a platoon would be...