How Technology is Revolutionizing the Trucking Industry

Automatic Safety Systems Paving the Way

If you’ve bought a new car in the last few years, you’ve gotten a taste of the advances setting the stage for self-driving trucks. Many consumer vehicles now come equipped with automatic safety systems that form part of the foundation of autonomous vehicle technology. 

• One such piece of tech is lane-assist technology. Using a variety of sensors, lane-assist offers a warning to drivers when they drift across lane markers. Some even redirect the wheel to ensure the vehicle stays in its lane.  
• Other vehicles feature forward collision warning, to detect stationary objects ahead. In fact, Volvo Active Driver Assist comes standard in several of their trucks. This technology offers truck drivers an alert before impact, and also engages emergency braking if drivers don’t react quickly enough to avoid a collision.i 

Platooning

Platooning uses a “follow the leader” strategy to automate vehicles in a convoy formation. Under this strategy, two (or more) trucks drive in a line. The first truck is controlled by a human driver. Although initial tests placed a human in the following truck, in the full realization of this technology, the subsequent trucks are not staffed by humans at all. They simply follow the lead truck, leveraging sensors and cloud-based communications to maintain the proper distance.  

Platooning is an attractive strategy for several reasons. It creates an obvious efficiency by allowing one driver to direct two or more trucks. It also results in fuel savings, since the following trucks experience less wind resistance and therefore consume less fuel.  

The European Union has embraced the possibilities of platooning, funding a project called Ensemble to study the possibility of using this technology to move freight around Europe. Their study will look at the potential effects of platooning, including better traffic management, road safety, cost reductions, and overall efficiency. The study concludes in March 2022.  

And then there are the companies who are actually piloting the future of self-driving trucks. 

Small Steps Toward a Big Future

Some still doubt the future of fully autonomous vehicles, citing safety concerns. However, plenty are tackling the challenges from different angles. For example, Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group (acquired by autonomous vehicle startup Aurora Innovation in late 2020) once envisioned autonomous trucks only driving highway miles between transfer hubs. In their vision, humans took over to handle the final miles through densely-populated areas.ii 

In fact, Aurora has already started putting the rubber to the road in Texas as part of a pilot program. Their self-driving trucks, which always have two vehicle safety operators on board, are moving freight for Barcel, maker of Takis spicy tortilla chips, between locations in Dallas, Palmer, and Houston.iii The company plans to launch a full autonomous trucking business by the end of 2023. 

Kodiak Robotics and Waymo have also been executing projects of their own, using the Southwest to test their self-driving trucks. Rather than pursuing Level 5 autonomy—fully automated driving with no human intervention ever required—the companies are focused on Level 4. Under Level 4 autonomy, the vehicle drives itself only under specific conditions, such as open highway driving. However, under other circumstances, like busy city streets, the driver is required to maneuver the vehicle. Additionally, a driver can always take control of the system as needed.  

In other words, self-driving trucks are closer than many think, and Level 4 freight deliveries may soon become more and more common. 

Precise Location Tracking

On the most basic level, IoT devices can solve a common problem in the logistics industry: Where exactly is my freight and when can I expect it to arrive? By offering precise location tracking, it’s possible to offer customers more accurate updates—and reroute trucks as needed when problems arise to reduce late deliveries. 

Freight Status

IoT devices can also reassure customers that freight is handled properly along its journey. Devices can monitor factors like temperature and humidity which can be important to customers shipping agricultural products as well as high-end alcohol.  

Available Cargo Space

Some trucking companies are also using cargo sensors to detect available trailer space in real-time. Using this information, they can arrange for pick-ups along a truck’s delivery route to optimize cargo movement and reduce driving miles. 

Preventative Maintenance

Finally, some companies are installing IoT devices on their trucks to detect the need for maintenance to prevent breakdowns. Volvo in particular has been a front-runner in this arena with its Remote Diagnostics system. Sensors on their trucks transmit several metrics, including engine and transmission performance, to their Uptime network. If problems are detected, drivers are connected to the Volvo Uptime Center in Greensboro, NC to discuss options for addressing these issues. The program has reduced the average repair time by 24% and the average diagnostic time by 71%.iv  

Now, all this IoT technology generates a lot of data, and there’s even more technology to help shippers, carriers, and supply chain managers figure out what to do with all of it. 

Route Optimization

By taking into account a number of critical factors—current trailer capacity, traffic data, warehouse lead time, and more—AI-driven dashboards can produce a series of routing options, each with a predicted arrival time. 

Procurement and Fulfillment

By analyzing past data, AI technology can assist with demand planning. For example, AI-backed software can predict what products or supplies will be needed and where, analyze current stock levels, then route deliveries as needed. Additionally, AI technology can also recommend re-routing in response to fluctuations in demand—or even traffic patterns. 

By leveraging massive data sets that are too complex for the human brain to process, AI can offer predictions and recommendations that will create new efficiencies and significantly impact how freight moves over the road.