Waymo, the automated driving division of Alphabet, recently announced that it will launch a pilot project for autonomous trucks in Atlanta to deliver goods for Google’s data center.
These self-driving trucks will use the same sensors previously tested by Waymo on their self-driving commercial vehicles, but the difference is that self-driving trucks still have to be 'monitored' by the human driver.
The company also said that Atlanta is one of the largest logistics hubs in the United States, making it the preferred location for logistics operations and creating a 'perfect environment' for a new round of self-driving truck testing.
Since the acquisition of Anthony Levandowski's truck auto company Otto, Uber began talking about trucks in 2016. In addition to Uber, Volvo, Daimler, Waymo, Tesla, and several startups are testing water trucks for automatic driving.
Before Waymo, Uber announced recently that self-driving trucks are using Uber Freight to ship goods in Arizona. Last month Uber Freight had helped the company transport a shipment from the Midwest to the final destination in Southern California.
These trucks are galloping on their own highways in Arizona, and the total trip is about 340 miles. Since November last year, Uber Freight has been coordinating such transport missions. This transport mission in Arizona marks Uber being tested from nature. The short-haul task turned to use its logistics platform on actual and complete transportation routes.
Uber said that by 2028, 1 million self-driving trucks will be on the road, and 1 million truck drivers will be transported to short distances because truck drivers can handle long journeys. In this regard, it takes 40 Thousands of new jobs can meet the needs of trucks.
In addition to the United States, Scania, a Swedish truck and bus manufacturer, recently announced a cooperation agreement with Finland’s Ahola Transport to conduct semi-automated truck fleet road tests on Nordic roads, with a focus on developing new types of driver assistance. Traffic technology.
This is the first European cooperation agreement to test a semi-automated truck fleet on a public road.
This cooperation is a customer cooperation agreement for Scania's second fleet of self-driving trucks. The first agreement was signed in January 2017. The company has entered into a partnership with the Ministry of Transport of Singapore and the Port Authority of Singapore (PSA Corporation) to automate driving. Truck fleet carries container traffic between ports in Singapore.
Of course, when it comes to self-driving trucks, Tesla can't be avoided.
Tesla launched last year's electric truck Semi a single cruising range of up to 500 miles (about 800 kilometers), the maximum load of 80,000 pounds (about 36 tons).
The truck can be driven automatically on the highway. The truck is equipped with the enhanced Autopilot, Tesla's automatic driving system, with automatic braking, lane keeping and lane departure warning.
For trucks and passenger cars, the question of who can lead the field in the field of automated driving, former Niklas Gustafsson, chief sustainability officer of the Volvo Group, said in an interview with the media that electric mobility should be started from the center of the city because there is an urgent need. The demand, such as air pollution, noise pollution, etc. However, in the high-speed, long-distance transport to achieve electrification, the difficulty is greater.
The direction of autopilot is just the opposite. In urban centers, there are many pedestrians and vehicles. The environment is very complicated and may take a long time to realize. However, if it is a long-distance, point-to-point long-distance truck transportation, it is easier to achieve, and Commercial significance and value are more obvious.
In addition, automatic driving can also be well applied in enclosed spaces, such as ports, few people, fewer cars, and less pedestrian-controlled environments such as mines and mining areas.
In terms of trucks, as commercial vehicles, more consideration is given to efficiency and safety. Self-driving trucks can bring greater security, not only to people in trucks, but also to people around trucks. Take Europe as an example. , European truck drivers or operators, driver costs account for 1/3 of capital expenditure. That is to say, if logistics companies use self-driving trucks, they can save 1/3 cost.
At the same time, compared to the price of trucks, the additional costs of adding autopilot technology such as cameras, sensors, and radar are almost nothing to mention. This is in line with the current cost of a self-driving system to buy a mid- to high-class passenger car. In contrast, the difference is even better.
The self-driving truck manufactured and operated by start-up Embark started carrying the smart refrigerator on the highway since October of last year. During transportation, the cab also needs a human driver to monitor it to prevent accidents. , The company said that the future development goal is fully automated driving, that is, no driver without driver.
In addition to Volvo and Embark, General Motors, Dalem are actively developing self-driving trucks. At present, the industry generally believes that semi-trailer trucks are one of the most suitable automotive areas for applying autopilot technology, or that semi-trailers are the fastest The best choice for driving.
At the same time, the heads of many development companies and industry experts also believe that the expressway is the most important road section for trucks and is the most suitable application scenario for self-driving trucks. Therefore, this is almost a consensus for all companies. The reason why this is said is that it is high speed. The closedness of highways avoids the complex traffic conditions that ordinary highways need to face.
In the Chinese market, the truck's automatic driving schedule has also been increasing.
At present, Tucson, a pioneer in truck autopilot from China, has completed more than 10,000 kilometers of real-world road tests in Caofeidian in the future. Beijing R&D coupled with Caofeidian’s excellent proving ground to make this company in the field of self-driving trucks. Leading position.
Relying on Tucson's future, Caofeidian will create a base for automated logistic transportation and commercialization, an automated logistics demonstration zone and a gathering place for autopilot truck industry chains. Meanwhile, based on its own strong technical capabilities, Tucson is planning to cooperate with a domestic port in the future. Self-driving trucks are put into the market to commercialize the project.
At the end of last year, the first batch of China National Heavy Duty Truck I-generation smart trucks were officially delivered to users. This made China National Heavy Duty Truck become the first domestic enterprise to achieve intelligent heavy truck mass production. Cai Dong, general manager of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, mentioned that heavy truck What is being done now is to make the car turn automatically. It is estimated that all experiments can be completed this year.
This car has automatic steering, automatic braking, automatic shifting, as long as the driver can do, the vehicle has been able to do. The vehicle is also equipped with a lot of laser radar, camera system, fully prepared for future self-driving vehicles.