Pretty wild.

Self-Driving Truck Transports 40,000 Pounds Of Butter 2,800 Miles Across The Country

How are the county mounties gonna ticket them?

Might cut down on revenue in some places?

Geno

With CDL truckers being one of the industries most needing future workers, how is this new technology going to affect the job market.

In a short ten years from now, if their timeline is accurate, how many more unemployed drivers will there be. Right now as I understand it, if you hold a CDL you can find work today. One might not like the job, or the company, but you can find work.

Going to be really interesting to see, especially these proposed convoys


How much room between trucks will be required so other travelers can pass safely? Will the convoy get bunched up on hills? Will non-autonomous trucks, driven by the same folks there are driving now, try to pass on a grade and not get back into the travel lane and allow faster traffic to pass?

And the savings? Will they be passed on to the consumers? (LOL, yeah, right)


I foresee problems, then again, maybe it might work for the better in some places, as it's a real pain in the ass to travel at or near the speed limit for non-truck traffic in those states where there are differential limits, when the trucks are supposed to be going 55 mph and regular traffic can legally go 65. Of course, there's always a truck going 62-63 which limits safe areas to pass. Perhaps these autonomous trucks will be set to obey the speed limit, or like some companies now, just kept at a maximum of 55 for fuel savings?

Geno

I wouldn't want to be in the driver's seat if the truck did something wrong.

Someday there will be a limited role. I plan to give them a wide berth.

Boomer,

I can sure imagine they'll be popular in the Outback of Australia.

And the American west?

Geno

Very specific lanes, like a part of terminal to terminal FedEx and UPS type businesses maybe. Even autonomous, they are not going to be running around empty. They will need a whole new support apperatus. Of course there's going to be crashes, just like the cars but bigger and will get more attention. Some day, when we're all running hydrogen, we'll have a percentage autonomous trucks I suppose.

NO dude, it's gonna be like Convoy on 40 East, all the way across the desert in SoCal, AZ, NM, and N TX.

10:4 Rubber Ducky and all that.

Or maybe like Every Which Way but Loose..............except with the Orang.

Geno

Roger that.

So do they get a pass on scales or do they have to pull through them. And what if the scale master throws the park and bring your papers light? Or what happens on a blowout at speed. There are a bunch of questions that the real world will bring up.

Consider too that a steady run, they're replacing 2 drivers not just one

I imagine the economics of it are very attractive.

It was only 40000 lbs? How much does a refer hold? I do 48000 lbs on a flatbed. I always thought they can do 45000 lbs in a van.

Reefer about 44. Dry van about 45.

I have weighed in a lot of over the road refer units which were on the lighter side of 33,000, which gives them room for 47,000 net.

But an AI refer truck can probably come in under 30 K #, with no driver, no sleeper, no food and water in the truck, no TV, no sleeper heater or AC, no generator. That will let the carrier schedule higher payload runs.

one thing that might help is since they are autonomous they can operate from like 8pm to 6am and not clog the interstates, plus with networking traffic software that is intelligent like Waze they can changes routes on the fly to address congested traffic. I also suspect we'll see some standardized communication between autonomous automobiles at some point soon so they will talk to each other about passing, speed, road conditions, etc.,

I doubt we'll see trucks without humans in them in 10 years but I can see them not have to work the controls.

autonomous driving when it becomes standard, along with the electric vehicle is going to radically alter alot of peripheral business like hotels, interstate gas stations, rest areas, parking lots, etc.,

Judging by how this is playing in the railroad industry, the job of "driver" is going to be a lot different, but not necessarily easier. Can't stop paying attention, because stuff happens. But paying attention gets much more difficult when things largely run themselves. I expect that drivers will still be held accountable if regulations are broken.

Screw that crap... Tesla's tried a few and they've crashed... THAT is just a car.. How many will die when a 80,000# 'self-driving' semi goes haywire? No thanks....

I work in the semi-truck manufacturing industry. My employer has a vested interest in this. The fleets say that there will always be a human in the cab because some loads value at $5,000,000. 4 guys in minivans have shown how easily that load can be hijacked without a driver by defeating the sensors.

I question on how they will pull into fuel stops and refuel without a driver. I guess it will add an employee at bigger fuel stops to do the refueling process on these self driving trucks (once they do without a human in them)

What length trailers? Are you saying 2019 sleeper rigs pulling 53' reefers would be 33 empty? The rig I'm in carries 1600 lbs of diesel, plus def, plus like 400#s reefer fuel. A case of Rockstars, 7 chains, 23 bottles of water, tv, microwave, satellite dish, coffee maker... LOL 45,400 including pallets would be LUCKY to make axle weights. And if I'm risking a fine, LUCKY ain't cutting it.

Sure they'll have staging areas for that kind of stuff where a driver can board and drive the last mile.

We're about 35,000 empty with a 3 axle reefer (without a reefer) full up with fuel. The old Cornbinder with a two axle reefer was pretty close to 33K empty.

I find the 45% savings number conservative. All the crap hanging off trucks that are safety and human related is amazing. Plus, you can run 7,000 hours a year vs. 2,000 hours per year. Half million miles a year per vehicle.

I think it's worth considering the law of unintended consequences. FIRST thing I would do if my truck was autonomous is slow it WAYYYY down. I'd be on the interstate doing 50 MPH to save a third of fuel, reduce tire wear and reduce maintenance costs. It would still get there in half the time. What's going to happen to I-5 in Seattle if all the trucks are put-putting along at 50? And, can I sell tickets? .

Second, a scary high number of the US working population that is on the lower end of the intelligence scale works as a driver. What are they going to do if they are no longer needed to drive a cab or a truck?

Hey, I resemble that incinerator! But it's true!

Did they cross vail and eisenhouer? Or even I80 Wyoming
What kind of transmission? Or do computers now know how to double clutch?

Hu hu hu, hu hu, he said reefer...

Previously I was in an automatic 12 speed that got its shift points from satellite terrain inputs. All about fuel economy. SOB would crest a little hill at say 53 and just coast downthe other side until it got back up to set cruise speed such as 65. Sucked ballz!

OK I'll bite. Fuel economy? I am betting on through new Mexico at 55 max.
Does the computer know how to plug the fuel return on the old cummins?
If you havent figured it yet I am a luddite

Fuel economy. Like save $40 per truck per day and you have 15000 trucks Or 50, or 800, easy money.

Back when we had the $4/gallon chit, 2009? Companies invested heavy in fuel economy. What might have been 4-5 mpg runs are now maybe 7-8? Something like that. Skirting under trailers, cab shapes, trail tails, engines, derating, shift points... Trucks run like 1100 rpm vs what was it 1400 down the road... Just a sampling.

I would be frightened to say the least see a truck passing me with no driver.

I'm normally not watching the driver. I'm watching the wheels to make sure I'm well clear of them.

If it grosses 80 K AND if the fifth wheel is set to put 12,500 on the steers, I WILL make the axles legal. guarandamteed.

I am saying some of them are less that 33 K. But then I have seen more than a few weigh in north of 36 K (Great Dane trailers usually) and they expect me to cut the load a pallet.

The load was posted at 45 K when they accepted it from CH Robinson. See Ya. Robinson can get me a truck which can carry the load as sold to the customer.

How 1990s!

The only time the driver touches the clutch is to put it in 1'st or reverse. Electronics cut the throttle and shift the gears from that point without the clutch.

Here is a 2 minute video of the first self driving truck. A load of Budweiser in Colorado, this was filmed 3 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb0Kzb3haK8

I am a driver, and this video gives me the creeps. I see the driver taking off his seat belt, there on the interstate at 65 mph, standing up, and walking back into the sleeper I am shouting "Sit back down! You gotta drive the truck."

Seeing the shot from in front from the drone, the big rig rolling down the interstate with nobody in the driver's seat gives me the creeps.

The big brass at my company told me, 2 years ago, that self driving trucks were the wave of the future. The problem is, that the millennials can't go 11 hours without texting on the Iphone. They can't go 1 hour, in fact.
I am serious that is what my managers told me, that is why the industry is shifting to self driving trucks. The Millennial "driver" pulls out from the dock, he shuts the doors, he drives it 2 miles onto the interstate, and then, he goes back into the sleeper and sends text messages on his Iphone while the computer drives his truck down the interstate.

ps. I hate Iphones. I am not just a Luddite, I am a Neanderthal with some of the highest Neanderthal dna ever tested for. I am in the top 4 percent. I hate Iphones, they are the new religion.

The whole driving thing is easy. The vast majority of new semi trucks sold are automated transmissions. Some are three pedal, most are two pedal (no clutch). Monitoring is easy. The computer monitors vibration, engine load, tire pressure all around, engine, transmission, differential and exhaust temperatures. You can buy a LOT of sensors for just the sign on bonus for one driver.

Support is easy, full service fuel stations, and pre and post trip inspections at each terminal. That truck will carry more than 200 gallons of fuel, and at 50 MPH, it'll do better than 10 MpG, so it doesn't need intervention of any kind for 40 hrs.

The hard part is integrating it into traffic. People are going to figure out very quickly that the truck will stop if you cut it off. What could possibly go wrong?

In that Bud video I noticed the rear wheels of the trailer crossed the yellow in a curve.

Idaho shooter
Try the 60s or 70s. Long removed from all that now, never was fully involved. So i guess the computer can double clutch or match speeds. Next i suppose you will tell me brownies and twin sticks are passe😊 and the 220 cummins isnt the big engine

I’m thankful I probably won’t be driving by then!!!

Just wait until a self driving truck is involved in a catastrophic accident with multiple fatalities .

How are the cops supposed to pull one over?

to let them know they're dragging the last set of traffic lights...

We had ours here last spring. Killed 4. Runaway on I70, missed understanding runaway escape gravel lanes; can computers read signs? Mexicans cant. Or know they just outran their brakes

They better have some good technology if they expect them to handle I-80 and I-25 in Wyoming. Aside from ever changing road conditions including black ice, blowing snow, and wind that blows trucks over or into other lanes of traffic, the highway department can electronically change the speed limits in certain high risk areas of I-80, announce via billboard that certain stretches are closed only for high profile light vehicles, or simply close a gate in the middle of a highway to close it, with no vehicles allowed to remain stopped on the roadway by the gates. Then there are chain laws. Finally, if that isn't enough, juries along the Interstates are not very sympathetic to truckers involved in fatalities, and I would expect a DA to be looking at the corporate and/or engineering offices of any company whose driverless truck kills or seriously injures someone.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...cing-for-automation-20191129-p53ffo.html

Rise of the machines: Why Australia's miners are racing for automation

There’s a photo making its way around the top ranks of BHP at the moment. It’s an aerial picture from Jimblebar, one of the company's biggest mines in the Pilbara. It shows a truck following a set of tyre marks, straight as a train track, etched into the earth from the thousands of trips before it.

The reason staff at BHP are emailing this unremarkable photo to each other is that the truck is autonomous – meaning it is driverless – and the perfect tyre marks tell much about why these vehicles are being rolled out across the miner’s haulage fleet with speed and enthusiasm: they show exactly where they are going and exactly where they have been. As one BHP manager puts it, “This photo tells a story.”

picture

(An autonomous truck following precision-like tracks at BHP's Jimblebar mine in WA.)

If you don’t work in the resources industry, the benefits of such precision and predictability might not be obvious. But for the miners of the vast Pilbara in Western Australia – whose iron ore sells for $US85 a tonne but could soon be fetching a whole lot less – productivity is king and efficiency matters.

It’s been a massive year for the steelmaking commodity iron ore, the nation’s biggest export. It experienced a mini-boom to $US122 a tonne on the back of soaring demand from China’s steel mills and a global supply shortage. But the good times, many now believe, will not be here to stay.


From Donald Trump’s trade war with China to a slowdown in global economic growth, the outlook for steel demand is weakening. According to the federal government’s latest quarterly resources report, iron ore prices will plunge from an average of $US80 a tonne this year to $US57 by 2021. As for Australia’s top Pilbara miners – BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue – the race is now on to strip out costs, drive productivity gains and preserve prosperity through whatever lies ahead. And much of that will be achieved through technology.

“For mining companies,” Rio Tinto iron ore chief Chris Salisbury said this week, “the key focus is to control the controllables”.

'Wheels taller than the ceiling'
On a hot Tuesday morning at Jimblebar, the temperature is quickly approaching 40 degrees. BHP’s technology boss, Diane Jurgens, is giving a presentation in an air-conditioned room usually reserved for training sessions. The topic of her speech is the company’s technology push and the major changes it's been driving. Why she’s chosen to make the address here in Jimblebar is that this site – 400 kilometres inland from Port Hedland – has become something of a testing ground for the mining giant’s autonomous ambitions over the past few years.

Jimblebar is now close to fully autonomous, she explains – its fleet of blast-hole drills are automated, largely controlled by the company’s remote integrated operations centre based far away in Perth. Since their introduction, drilling costs at the mine are down 25 per cent and the cost of maintaining the drills has fallen 40 per cent.

More recently, as of November 2017, Jimblebar’s haulage fleet of 57 trucks has become fully autonomous, too.

“Wait until you see these trucks,” says Jurgens. “Huge. Wheels taller than this ceiling.”

Day or night, rain or shine – in fact, right this very second – there are 50 such trucks moving between Jimblebar’s pits and processing plants, many of them driving one behind the other, exactly 30.00 metres apart.

“What that’s done for us is increased our truck utilisation – the availability – so we can run them almost 24 hours a day,” Jurgens says. On good days the trucks will only have to stop for refuelling, which takes 15 minutes, before they are back at work again.

The productivity results are meaningful. Since the introduction of autonomous trucks, Jimbleblar’s haulage costs have been slashed by 20 per cent and the mine is now considered the “benchmark” site for haulage costs within BHP’s portfolio.

But for Jurgens and the management team at Jimblebar, the most important results are seen in the incidence of what’s known in the mining sector as “PL4s”. Significant events – events that could have seriously injured or potentially killed somebody. Despite Jimblebar’s expansion and almost doubling of the truck fleet size, PL4s are nearly 90 per cent lower.

Productivity push
The push to achieve productivity gains, of course, is nothing new in Australia’s fiercely competitive resources industry. Steady progress has been on foot for some time. Rio Tinto, the nation’s second-biggest miner, is widely considered to be the industry leader in the development and adoption of autonomous mining technologies. More than a decade ago now, Rio set itself a vision called “mine of the future”, which has included the adoption of autonomous drills and driverless trucks. Its highest-profile and latest milestone, however, has been the successful deployment of its AutoHaul technology – the world’s first automated, heavy-haul long-distance train network.

Rio Tinto refers to it as “the world’s largest robot”. And with a network of 200 locomotives and 1700 kilometres of railway track transporting ore from 16 mines to four port terminals, it’s a boast that is technically correct.

Since 2017, under Jurgens and the leadership of BHP’s outgoing chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, the company has been eager to shake its reputation as the “follower” in the field of technological innovation. By some measures, it might just be paying off.

Autohaul trains at Rio Tinto's 7 Mile rail operations in Karratha.
Autohaul trains at Rio Tinto's 7 Mile rail operations in Karratha. CREDIT:HAMISH HASTIE

BHP’s iron ore operations, its biggest cash generator, has increased production by 20 per cent while reducing costs by more than 50 per cent. And last year, it toppled its rivals to take the mantle as the world’s lowest-cost iron ore producer, with unit costs of $US11.89 per tonne for the six months to June and $US12.86 per tonne for the full year.

Salisbury, at Rio Tinto, says today's more subdued outlook for iron ore – caused by the predicted drop in Chinese imports and greater use of scrap metal in the country's steel mills – means Australian miners will adopt an even greater focus on insulating their businesses by investing in technology and productivity.

Just this week, the board of Rio Tinto signed off on a $1 billion investment to sustain production capacity and drive down costs at its oldest mine in the Pilbara, the Greater Tom Price operation. The funding will go towards the construction of a new crusher and a 13-kilometre conveyor and, crucially, it will also be used to turn half of its truck fleet at one of the mines into autonomous trucks by the end of the year.

Up to180 haulage trucks, about half its iron ore fleet, would be fully autonomous by the end of the year, Salisbury says.

“And we have a pathway to go to 80 per cent over the next few years,” he says.

Job losses
For those who work in on-the-ground mining roles, the obvious flip side of lower costs and fewer safety incidents is that the rise of automation is displacing jobs that were once done by humans.

"Nowhere has the nature of work changed as much as in the mining and resources sector," says Deloitte's head of mining, Ian Sanders. "Automation has become integrated at all stages of production, improving health and safety and raising productivity. This trend is here to stay."

According to research by consultancy firm McKinsey earlier this year, the automation of the nation’s workforce will be most pronounced in mining regions. In areas like the Pilbara, it found more than 30 per cent of jobs could be affected. So for the trade union officials representing mine workers, the transition to automated practices, including autonomous vehicles, is often a cause of concern.

The latest flashpoint of this tension has been an announcement by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance that it will automate many jobs in Queensland’s Bowen Basin as a result of the staged conversion of 86 Komatsu trucks into autonomous vehicles over two years. Management has assured staff the decision will not lead to layoffs – forced or voluntary – saying existing jobs will be relocated to Brisbane or elsewhere. As well, staff have been told, the move to automation will result in 50 new full-time positions, including jobs to manage the fleet.

Some workers, however, are unconvinced and remain fearful of workplace disruption.

Stephen Smyth from the Queensland branch of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), has warned the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance that it risks a community backlash if workers are displaced.

“BHP can choose to put the interests of the workforce and local community at the centre of their automation strategy or simply chase profits by replacing local jobs with robots,” Smyth says.

“It’s a balance,” says Jurgens, acknowledging there are challenges for workers affected by the company’s wider move to automated practices. Some staff are able to be redeployed within the organisation, she says, while others will be offered “transition planning”. But she points to the workforce at BHP’s Jimblebar to highlight the point that automation is also creating new jobs, particularly technician roles, and bringing new skills to worksites that weren’t there before.

“We are creating jobs as well as ensuring all of our key members understand where and when we are implementing autonomy,” she says. “We communicate openly with our team members in the operations about what we are doing and where we are going.”

Two weeks ago, BHP dropped a long-awaited announcement: Mike Henry, the company’s hugely respected head of Australian operations, would succeed Andrew Mackenzie as chief executive from January.

At his first appearance, just hours after the news, Henry faced a barrage of questions about what he intended to do differently – questions ranging from climate and emissions policies and the future of thermal coal to longer-term plans for its oil and gas business. Henry gave little away, sticking largely to script that the business was in “great shape”. He said he would spend the rest of 2019 touring BHP’s global operations and engaging with staff before making any significant decisions.

One comment, however, appears to have offered some insight into his vision for the future: “We will unlock even greater value from our ore bodies and petroleum basins by enabling our people with the capability, data and technology to innovate and improve.”

Henry this week took the theme further still, flagging BHP will forge closer ties and enter into partnerships with the mining equipment and technology developers including startups, in order to accelerate the introduction of new products that can“lift performance, make us safer, reduce costs, grow value”.

He singled out the result of a recent partnership with a Perth startup in developing a special “acoustic monitoring system”, which detects anomalies on BHP’s mining operations’ conveyor belts and other rotating equipment using “real-time, data-powered monitoring”.

“I never tire of hearing stories like this,” he said. “The ingenuity and entrepreneurial energy that exists in the mining equipment and technology sector holds such potential for not only companies like BHP, but for the economy.”

The head of Fortescue Metals Group, Elizabeth Gaines, is also eyeing an increasingly automated future. She says the adoption of autonomous haulage trucks has driven a 30 per cent productivity boost, as well as the obvious safety benefits.

“It would be pretty easy to attribute the results to what we saw in the strength of the iron ore price,” she says. But in fact, they were the product of Fortescue’s strong profit margins, too, which are “underpinned by the use of innovation and technology”.

Next, she says, Fortescue plans to collaborate with equipment makers on the prospect of autonomous light vehicles, too.

“We are focusing on some of the other technologies that are still evolving but not quite there yet,” she says.

“We are still on a journey.”

The author flew from Perth to Jimblebar courtesy of BHP.

By the time these non-human trucks are up and fully running, they will have designated lanes. More then likely the lanes will be in left hand shoulder lane, with a barrier between the "commercial" lane and the "human" lanes.
If they build the truck lanes on the existing shoulders, there would be limited additional structures needed built.

Driverless big rig on the freeway behind you?
No thanks