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. This technology is more technically and economically meaningful, and may also affect the entire long-distance transportation industry

in the next few years, driverless self driving trucks may appear on the highways in the sunshine zone of the United States. This kind of truck will still have the traditional steering wheel and oversized rear-view mirrors, which will also serve as the support for sensors such as on-board radar, laser radar and camera to help the truck better observe the surrounding traffic conditions

this kind of truck is not as smart and adaptable as human beings, but it has superhuman senses and does not need to rest. More importantly, this kind of truck will not be affected by many defects in automatic driving technology. Due to the inherent defects of autonomous driving technology, many enterprises have invested decades and tens of billions of dollars in the autonomous passenger car industry, but they have repeatedly exceeded the set implementation deadline. Supporters of self driving truck technology say that self driving trucks may enter the market faster and start to make profits in commercial services

some companies said they would launch the first trucks without drivers on American highways by the end of next year. Aurora cooperates with FedEx and Werner enterprises, and tusimple has established cooperative relations with ups and Ryder

when autonomous trucks are widely used in transportation, it will have a significant impact on the way goods are transported, as well as on the companies and personnel involved in this process. First, it may help alleviate the chronic shortage of drivers across the United States. The American Trucking Association said that drivers retired faster than newcomers, resulting in a driver gap of 80000 drivers, a record high

although it is still far away to achieve fully automatic driving under different conditions, engineers are close to achieving this goal under limited conditions, such as on highways in sunny weather

chrisurmson, CEO of Aurora, said that all expressways have natural self similarity

"that is to say, a small section of highway in Texas looks very much like a small section of highway in Phoenix or Minnesota," ulmson explained. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a Google executive. In 2017, he co founded Aurora with others. For the AI technology supporting automatic driving, the self similarity feature is a good thing, because AI does well in dealing with things seen before, but does not perform well in adapting to new situations. This problem exists more or less in driving systems such as general super cruise and Tesla autopilot

another advantage of expressway is that compared with urban roads, there are no pedestrians, cyclists, animals and running children, and the traffic signs are often clear and the road conditions are well maintained

the weather on expressways in southwestern states of the United States is generally very good. At present, the self driving truck company is testing the auto drive system equipped with safe drivers to deliver real goods for actual customers such as FedEx and UPS

in good weather, self driving trucks can see farther than people. The machine will never be drowsy or inattentive. It can run 24 hours. It will only stop when the fuel is exhausted and maintenance is carried out

some people do not believe that self driving trucks can be commercialized in the next few years or will have a significant impact soon

first of all, young companies trying to create this technology must be able to maintain the interest of investors before they start to make profits

aurora has said that the loss will continue until 2027. The company was listed through special purpose acquisition in november2021, and its current share price is about one quarter of the issue price of $10 at the time of listing

aurora CFO Richard tame said that the company has sufficient cash and short-term financing to launch the first self driving truck next year and 2024. Aurora has said in public documents that it is expected that more funds will eventually need to be raised

even if the start-up truck can be on the road as scheduled, it will take some time to make a real impact. Sterling Anderson, chief product officer of Aurora, said that the company would put "dozens" of driverless trucks on American highways by the end of 2023

houxiaodi, future CEO of Tucson, said that his company plans to operate fully automated truck transportation commercial services in the U.S. market by the end of 2023. At the same time, a Tucson future spokesman said that the company plans to use self driving trucks to transport goods for Union Pacific

however, compared with the nearly 4million large trucks currently driving on the roads in the United States, the dozens of self driving trucks expected to be on the road by the end of 2023 are a drop in the ocean

as a subsidiary of alphabet, the parent company of Google, waymo is not worried about capital and is not so active in predicting when the autonomous truck will land. Waymo via, its main truck business unit, has not yet determined the specific implementation date of self driving trucks, but has established cooperative relations with the freight company C.H. Robinson, the fleet service operator Ryder, the freight brokerage company Uber freight and the truck manufacturer Daimler trucks

charliejatt, head of waymo's freight commercialization, said that there were many reasons for waymo's low profile. An important problem is that at present, no commercial truck that can be mass produced has the redundant control system required by the auto drive system

if the power steering of a manned car fails, the driver may still move it to the side of the road. But Jett said that because there was no one in the cab, autonomous trucks must have backup steering, braking and electronic systems. He added that the reason why waymo teamed up with Daimler trucks was to plug all these systems into commercial trucks with energy production

in fact, in addition to Tucson future, many insiders said in an interview that the possibility of system error is the reason why the self driving truck has not landed yet. A recent report issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) listed more than 100 accidents involving vehicles equipped with auto drive system in the past year

exhaustedDespite this, the potential economic benefits of self driving truck transportation technology are so huge that many shippers and transportation companies are willing to accept it

parth vaishnav, assistant professor at the University of Michigan, said: "what really surprises us is that the additional cost of the technology required for autonomous trucks is relatively small."

labor costs typically account for 15 to 20 percent of truck operating costs. The study found that even adding $20000 worth of hardware equipment to long-distance trucks, such as installing sensors and powerful on-board computers, can be quickly offset by the reduction in labor costs. Another economic impact is that, according to the law, truck drivers must stop and rest. This means that each truck priced at $100000 to $200000 can only be used for 30 to 40 percent of the time. If it can operate 24 hours a day, the utilization rate of trucks will be doubled or more

washnav added: "even if other factors related to trucks slightly increase costs, they may still be attractive."

waymo's strategy is to develop a set of basic system waymo driver including software and customized sensors. Jeter said that the system can automatically drive any vehicle, including trucks and taxis, after being adjusted according to the needs of users. He added that this may mean that waymo will not be the first company to deploy autonomous trucks, but once the company starts to launch autonomous trucks, the business may spread faster than its competitors

regulation is also difficult to become an obstacle to the landing of autonomous trucks. Although NHTSA has developed relevant guidelines, which have been adopted by most states, in essence, these regulations only require enterprises to conduct self-regulation. "A few states require specific certifications or bans, but all other states are open to business," said Aurora's Anderson

don Burnett, CEO of Kodiak robotics, another self driving truck start-up company, said that self driving truck companies like them have started to validate technology on the road, which is why it takes only a few years to deploy safe and commercially available automatic trucks

in the long run, self driving trucks may become the killer of driver employment from the solution of driver shortage. Washnav said that there are about 500000 truck drivers in the United States. Long distance truck transportation is one of the most arduous jobs in the truck transportation industry, but it is also the highest paid job

in his research, the deployment of autonomous trucks only in states with good weather conditions can reduce the total time spent on the road by long-distance truck drivers in the United States by 10%. Aniruddh Mohan, who cooperates with washnav, said that this would mean that 30000 to 40000 jobs would disappear

Mohan added that as the self driving truck becomes more and more powerful, it can complete most of the long-distance driving work in most parts of the United States, which may eventually threaten almost all drivers engaged in long-distance transportation

however, many insiders claim that new jobs will emerge accordingly. Self driving trucks will make truck transportation faster and cheaper, make more cargo transportation turn to self driving trucks, and many railway and even air transportation will be replaced

all self driving trucks will be remotely monitored manually and can pull over and send a distress signal. In addition, the specific situation of human participation may vary from company to company, for example, whether drivers will drive in urban streets and other places

it is worth noting that the current long-distance truck transportation work is very different from the stable middle-class work before the deregulation of the truck transportation industry in the 1970s. Steveviscelli, an expert in the truck transportation industry at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the industry advisory committee of Aurora, believes that, Self driving trucks will continue to drive the continuous transformation of the industry for decades

weschley said: "in a few years, we may see self driving trucks on the road. In the next decade, the popularity of self driving trucks may be much faster than expected." "These trucks will have different functions from ordinary trucks, so they will not be used like ordinary trucks. Just like 100 people using shovels are not equivalent to excavators." (Chenchen)