Just after industry experts suggested fleet managers prepare for autonomous vehicles, there’s talk that self-driving trucks will hit the road in the next decade and save fuel, decrease emissions, and promote safety on the road to a higher degree than today’s commercial fleet vehicles.
Global director of Automotive & Transportation Research for Frost and Sullivan, Sandeep Kar, spoke on the benefits of the new technology employed in self-driving trucks: “Trucks that will host these technologies in 2020 and beyond will be more fuel-efficient compared to trucks today and will feature even higher levels of distributed electronics. Automated vehicle technologies can enhance fuel efficiency by communicating with disparate vehicle systems and sub-systems in trucks featuring electronic interfaces.”
Self-driving trucks doesn’t mean the end of fleet truck drivers. In fact, Kar believes drivers will be able to benefit from the technology “particularly if drivers can extract the promised benefits of this technology effectively and efficiently– which includes higher fuel efficiency, higher safety, less driver fatigue, etc,” he said.
The technology that will allow trucks to be autonomous vehicles will also offer other benefits like better communication with the fleet hub, shippers, receivers, and maintenance providers.