Ohio and Indiana are testing out truck platooning, where one driver can control two trucks, the follower truck copying what the lead truck does. This could help deal with America's truck driver shortage.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/truck-platooning-ohio-indiana
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Could this technology be extended in the future to support one driver driving more than two trucks? What could this mean for the trucking industry as a whole?
What makes this more advantageous than just piggybacking two trailers on one tractor? In the Western United States I frequently see three piggybacked onto a single tractor.
Edit: it’s a legitimate good faith question that could be answered without a down vote.
“Boost safety”, huh?
Trains would be 1,000 times safer.
This only works for certain routes, probably only between distros. And that’s only if they drive on the road 100% by the book, which I can tell you right now that’s not what’s happening. They are underpaid for ridiculous routes that sometimes don’t even exist.
Instead of paying them something worth losing the feeling in their feet for, let’s tack on extra workload to the poor fuck thats trying to get his retirement and get out.
You do realize as with many of these shortages it’s not that their is a “truck driver shortage”. It’s a profitable enough to live shortage with a outcome being fewer truck drivers willing to work atom thin margins to drive.
This is another pulling the bootstraps until they snap issue. From a technology progression unmanned trucking is inevitable. That said there is no talk about how to help these people who will be pushed out. Let the invisible hand handle that LOL!
There will be no shortage of drivers as more and more long hauls are made fully automated self driving. This seems like un unnecessary stop gap and I bet less safe than just letting Trucks drive themselves as it creates a space drivers don’t dare to merge into.
As a truck driver, the truck driver shortage is a myth. The trucking industry created this myth so they’d have a constant supply of new drivers so they don’t have to pay a decent wage. Most new drivers work 60-70 hours a week and make around $1000. It’s less than $20 an hour with no overtime because you get paid by the mile. Most jobs will keep you out 3 weeks and then you get three days off. The turnover rate for the mega trucking companies is often more then 100%.
Driver shortages? LoL
If anything, there’s an overage of drivers. When COVID hit, everyone and their mother started a trucking company because it was in high demand and relatively easy to do. Now, spot prices on load boards suck and it’s pointless to start a business in trucking.
“…With one driver effectively operating two trucks, the system extends fleet capacity without doubling head count. ”
So, what happens when some idiot driver gets between the two trucks? This is only one of dozens (hundreds) of situations that could go seriously wrong.
Or… Pay drivers well and you will attract drivers to cover the shortage.
You lot should really look into longer trucks. The arbitrary limitation to a single trailer is a holdover from decades ago. It’s very common to see double or triple trailers on Australian roads. I trust that on the road far more than this trial or self driving trucks.
USA needs so many trucks cause you have the largest trucks but carry the smallest loads compared to any other developed nation.
Gotta change your load limits, my friends.
Even tiny European nations are allowed longer and heavier trailers than the good old USA.
We already have that in Australia. 3 or 4 trailers behind the prime mover.
What if they built one really powerful truck that could then haul many many different containers.
Then we could put that truck on a special track to avoid regular traffic , and give it steel wheels for low friction. You could then have a couple of engineers, erm truck drivers transporting over a hundred trucks worth of stuff.
Neat! Just like so many other tech ‘entrepreneurs’, they’ve successfully invented a shittier train! Well done!