Highly Automated Commercial Vehicles Hitting the Road

A variety of autonomous vehicles, meant for everything from ridesharing applications in urban and suburban cities to last mile fulfillment that provides quick and inexpensive deliveries, are currently in the pilot stage Along with tech giants like Google, most OEMs are continuing to invest in autonomous vehicle development. China-based Alibaba is testing driverless robotics to complete deliveries to secure lockers.

Commercial OEMs are moving beyond prototypes and to on-road testing of varying form factors and levels of autonomy on roads and highways. Leading heavy-duty OEM Daimler’s 2020 Freightliner Cascadia truck offers SAE Level 2 autonomy--the first Class 8 produced in the United States. The company will also move to SAE Level 4 testing at some point in 2019. Tesla’s semi-autonomous truck expects to launch early production sometime this year, with multiple sightings on roads in California. TuSimple expects to create the largest self-driving fleet this year, expanding their fleet to 40 trucks as well as adding interstate travel, with their sights set on 200 trucks and “driver out” by the end of next year.

Hyundai completed South Korea’s first Level 3 autonomous truck highway journey at 40km with loaded cargo in August of 2018. They have plans to commercialize the truck in 2020. Shanghai became the first Chinese city to test autonomous trucks on roads with TuSimple.

A rising number of autonomous applications are growing for Mobility as a Service (MaaS), including Alphabet-owned provider Waymo One’s self-driving van service, which began offering autonomous trips to early riders in the Phoenix metropolitan area at the end of 2018. General Motors and Ford are planning similar launches over the next two years. In Japan, Hinomaru Kotsu began testing self-driving taxi services with start-up ZMP to help address a driver shortage. Use of these services will likely grow with the upcoming 2020 Olympics.

Autonomy for last mile delivery is also growing, both geographically and across form factors. Last year, Yamato Transport Co. and DeNa Co. completed autonomous van delivery service trails that were available for the area’s 61,000 residents. Walmart is beginning home delivery with Udelv’s modified Ford Transit Connect self-driving vans and a safety driver to unload the groceries. The star-up plans to grow to 100 vehicles this year for various clients. United States grocer Fry’s (The Kroger Company) began testing small, truly driverless deliveries with start-up Nuro, and already completed over 1,000 deliveries. Amazon has also been spotted using self-driving trucks from Embark (integrated into existing trucks) to haul highway-only cargo.

With current laws still underdeveloped around the globe, liability and the lack of comprehensive regulation can deter the development and testing of fully autonomous commercial vehicles. However, the AV Start Act 2017-2018 in the United States is a bill to remove liability of autonomous technology companies in cases where riders are injured in autonomous vehicles. Cultural norms and the perceived threat of both safety and job loss can also be impactful.For example, despite an overall positive reaction, Waymo’s self-driving vans have also become the focus of dozens of threats or harassment from Phoenicians.

Many companies in the autonomous driving industry are responding to these concerns. For example, Toyota, which has partnered with Uber, is expected to launch/implement its Guardian driver assistance solution by 2021. Per the California DMV’s recently released annual disengagement report Waymo was the most successful, even though safety drivers are still needed to take over control in some cases and the software will need further enhancements.

Efficiency, including future impact to the driver shortage, and safety benefits are compelling. Human error is the source of nearly 9 out of 10 serious crashes in the transportation industry according to the DOT. Still addressing cybersecurity risk end to end and training former drivers to become the new mobile workers is paramount.The good news is, with country- and industry-wide standards and partnerships, significant simulation, real-world testing and, of course, public and private investment in infrastructure, all of this is achievable.