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Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

cnn.com

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Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#71

Post by istjohn »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #32

There's also a trial of "platooning" of driverless trucks on I-70 in Ohio and Indiana: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2025/04/24/ease-... A "drivered" lead truck is leading one or more driverless trucks in this case. I drive the stretch of highway these trucks are on fairly regularly. I don't know that I've seen a group of them yet but I'm keeping my eye out. I'm probably just showing my age, but I like…

Someone should develop an ad-hoc platooning network for truckers. Install a platooning cruise control package on your rig and then get an alert on your dash when another truck in the network is in your vicinity looking to platoon. Lock in the cruise control behind the lead vehicle, and the app automatically calculates the fuel savings and divides the savings equally between the operators.

Edit: Various sources say that platooning can cut fuel use by 4-15%.

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#72

Post by mulmen »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #32

There's also a trial of "platooning" of driverless trucks on I-70 in Ohio and Indiana: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2025/04/24/ease-... A "drivered" lead truck is leading one or more driverless trucks in this case. I drive the stretch of highway these trucks are on fairly regularly. I don't know that I've seen a group of them yet but I'm keeping my eye out. I'm probably just showing my age, but I like…

> I'm probably just showing my age, but I like the idea of a "drivered" truck leading driverless trucks versus a completely autonomous system. It's similar to my attitude on crewed spaceflight-- I like the idea of the ingenuity and capacity for independent thought supervising an automated systems, versus autonomous automated systems.

Great example because spacecraft are fully autonomous. The weakest link in that platoon is the driver.

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#73

Post by mulmen »

somethoughts wrote: post #30

I feel like the ideal scenario would be to prioritize self driving truck at set times and set long haul freeways (i.e. Long Beach to Las Vegas or Galveston to Dallas) during the night time when there is no regular auto traffic - for example from 1 am-6 am. That way if a human driver is concerned, they can choose not to drive during this period of time. Perhaps run the trucks in a train style configuration where a "co…

> I feel like the ideal scenario would be to prioritize self driving truck at set times and set long haul freeways (i.e. Long Beach to Las Vegas or Galveston to Dallas) during the night time when there is no regular auto traffic - for example from 1 am-6 am.

But why though? These trucks will be safer than humans at the wheel. The most dangerous thing on the road will continue to be the humans driving next to the truck.

> That way if a human driver is concerned, they can choose not to drive during this period of time.

Why should we care about the concerns of a human driver? I don't get a choice to opt out of pedestrian smashing SUVs.

> Perhaps run the trucks in a train style configuration where a "conductor" can sit in the lead truck and manage any emergency issues that arise (i.e. security, crash or weather related).

What possible value will a human offer in that circumstance? We already have weather reports. Anyone willing to provide security is going to be prohibitively expensive and doesn't need to actually be in the truck. Autonomous vehicles are better at avoiding and responding to accidents than humans.

> what would stop a few cars passage in front of the truck and helping themselves to the cargo.

The FBI? What stops highway robbery today?

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#74

Post by bayarearefugee »

lenerdenator wrote: post #13
RankingMember wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UBI is inevitable imo; we're going to continue to see machines replace humans in roles like this.

The guys with all of the money don't like paying people now when people actually deliver value with their labor. No way they do it once they can just have machines work for them. Well, not with being asked politely, at least.

true, but on the other hand when things get bad enough the guillotine plans will probably be open sourced and freely shared.

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#75

Post by [deleted] »

somethoughts wrote: post #47
cenamus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sounds almost like Musk's hare-brained plan to put self-driving teslas (driving with only a couple metres separation) in paved tunnels. I guess some people really hate sharing the bus/car/train with poor people

Quite the opposite - right now (or at least in the future unless interventions are added) poor people have no option but to submit themselves to driving sandwiched amongst with 10 ton trucks driven by who knows what, vibe coded, beta tested, "AI" software.

[deleted]

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#76

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #54
EvanAnderson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like there's an aerodynamic advantage to the platoons. Placing an autonomous truck in the lead of one of these platoons, down the road, seems like a reasonable "upgrade" strategy.

> Placing an autonomous truck in the lead of one of these platoons, down the road, seems like a reasonable "upgrade" strategy Sure. I just don’t see the time-to-market advantage of starting with a human lead outpacing the core technology advantage of being fully autonomous from the get go. (Counterpoint: Waymo using Uber to manage the front end in Atlanta.)

[deleted]

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#77

Post by dmurray »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #54
EvanAnderson wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like there's an aerodynamic advantage to the platoons. Placing an autonomous truck in the lead of one of these platoons, down the road, seems like a reasonable "upgrade" strategy.

> Placing an autonomous truck in the lead of one of these platoons, down the road, seems like a reasonable "upgrade" strategy Sure. I just don’t see the time-to-market advantage of starting with a human lead outpacing the core technology advantage of being fully autonomous from the get go. (Counterpoint: Waymo using Uber to manage the front end in Atlanta.)

But the company that figures out platooning can also work on self-driving, or can partner with or sell itself to the company that does figure out self-driving.

Working on platooning - assuming it's a more or less viable business idea on its own - doesn't need to be a distraction that prevents anyone from developing fully autonomous trucks.

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#78

Post by usrusr »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #56
EvanAnderson wrote: post #32

There's also a trial of "platooning" of driverless trucks on I-70 in Ohio and Indiana: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2025/04/24/ease-... A "drivered" lead truck is leading one or more driverless trucks in this case. I drive the stretch of highway these trucks are on fairly regularly. I don't know that I've seen a group of them yet but I'm keeping my eye out. I'm probably just showing my age, but I like…

next level would be to hook these "platoons" together physically and then centralize the propulsion in a super efficient package. And then we could move them off the highways and onto specialized "tracks" that guarantee they don't deviate from the planned routes. speculative, alien technology, admittedly, but some day our scientists will figure it out i bet!

Problem is those railroad cars usually don't share origin and destination. And spending a day or two on the switchyard for every couple of hours of actual travel isn't what customers want.

The beaty of platooning is that trucks can join and leave while traveling at speed, all they need is a free lane on the side.

And if you really want to tease out all the efficiencies of rail, without suffering the drawbacks, you make electrified lanes that also have embedded tracks (like those of a tramway, but designed for higher load) and make the trucks multimodals that can switch while moving. Actually just those trucks that would see an economic advantage, trucks designed for light, high volume loads would likely stick to road wheels only.

A setup like this could actually be super economical compared to two because a rail network needs huge separation between trains because rails are terrible for braking fast. Multimodals on the other hand could be designed to be able to switch to their road wheels in an emergency. And a rail network needs an ungodly amount of nines in terms of reliability and rarity of maintenance, because there is no plan B network. Reliability nines are expensive. Multimodals on the other hand could easily be diverted to a dirt road for a bit when the main lanes are defective or going through maintenance. Where they would be running on the same batteries they carry anyways, for the last couple of miles on regular, non-electrified roads.

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#79

Post by Animats »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #32

There's also a trial of "platooning" of driverless trucks on I-70 in Ohio and Indiana: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbishop1/2025/04/24/ease-... A "drivered" lead truck is leading one or more driverless trucks in this case. I drive the stretch of highway these trucks are on fairly regularly. I don't know that I've seen a group of them yet but I'm keeping my eye out. I'm probably just showing my age, but I like…

> There's also a trial of "platooning"

That's been tried before. See Demo 97, when CALTRANS had a demo of self-driving.[1] Worked OK, but took a lot of roadside equipment, like a railroad.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlZEeIC_2lI

Re: Driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

#80

Post by mike_d »

lenerdenator wrote: post #57
porphyra wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a national truck driver shortage, with a particular lack of young drivers [1]. Perhaps automation technology will become widespread just in time for the current generation of drivers to retire. [1] https://www.iru.org/news-resources/newsroom/worse-you-though...

"Why is this the case? Why are there so few women and young truck drivers? How can we get more of them behind the wheel?" Well, it's like literally everything else. Pay more.

No the solution isn't to pay more. We shouldn't be trying to figure out ways to get more people into shitty hazardous jobs.

You don't "pay more" to get more young people and women to apply to moving spent nuclear fuel, you give the job to the robots.

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