The pair of semi trucks cruising down Interstate 70 between Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis could appear unremarkable at first look. However these rigs are a part of a groundbreaking pilot venture that would reshape the U.S. freight trade.
Launched in April by way of a joint initiative between the Ohio and Indiana Departments of Transportation (DOTs), the venture assessments semiautonomous “platooning” know-how, by which a lead truck operated by a human driver is linked to a follower truck by way of encrypted, military-grade communications. Indicators from the lead truck management the follower truck’s steering, acceleration, and braking; in essence, the follower truck mimics what the lead truck does. With one driver successfully working two vans, the system extends fleet capability with out doubling head rely. Together with addressing the nation’s persistent truck-driver scarcity, It could possibly additionally improve security and enhance fuel efficiency.
Ohio Department of Transportation
“That is about reimagining the way forward for transportation in our area,” says Nick Hegemier, managing director for infrastructure and know-how at DriveOhio, a smart-mobility initiative throughout the Ohio DOT. “By collaborating throughout state strains and sectors, we’re paving the way in which for smarter, safer, and extra environment friendly freight motion.”
What’s truck platooning?
For the pilot venture, Kratos Defense, a San Diego–based mostly protection contractor identified for its autonomous military systems, tailored its battlefield vehicle-following know-how for civilian use. The vans are operated by EASE Logistics, in Dublin, Ohio.
“We’re not changing drivers—we’re extending their attain.”
–Maynard Issue, Kratos Protection
Kratos’s system might be retrofitted to present vans and is designed to be sturdy in high-interference environments. It makes use of dual-channel, frequency-hopping communications and 256-bit advanced encryption standard. The vans can change between two radio frequencies—915 megahertz and a couple of.4 gigahertz—to take care of a safe connection at the same time as they roll by way of digital tollbooths, which largely use 915 MHz.
“There’s no Wi-Fi, no mobile, no Bluetooth,” says Maynard Factor, vp of enterprise growth at Kratos. “Only a direct vehicle-to-vehicle hyperlink with clever fallback if one frequency turns into unreliable.”
The tight coordination between the vans improves security by serving to to dampen the stop-and-go shockwaves that may result in accidents. The follower truck additionally makes use of as much as 10 p.c much less gasoline by staying within the low-pressure wake of the lead truck, whereas the lead truck’s gasoline economic system improves by a couple of p.c as a result of it experiences much less turbulence at its rear, in keeping with researchers.
Within the one-year Ohio–Indiana pilot, the follower truck features a human backup driver. Issue says that the system can help backup drivers who don’t have industrial driver’s licenses; the eventual aim is to haven’t any driver within the second automobile. Alternatively, if each drivers are certified, they’ll change locations when the lead driver will get drained.
“On the finish of the day, we’re not changing drivers—we’re extending their attain,” Issue says. “We’re constructing a future the place know-how helps the workforce as a substitute of sidelining it.”
Execs and cons of truck platooning
If platooning turns into widespread, trucking firms may save some huge cash. A 2021 U.S. Department of Energy study on truck platooning discovered that nationwide spontaneous platooning—the place vans from completely different places encounter one another on the street and wirelessly pair up whereas they’re headed in the identical route—may save almost US $1 billion a yr in gasoline, says Mohamadhossein Noruzoliaee, an assistant professor of civil engineering on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and coauthor of the examine. “It additionally will increase street capability by about 8 p.c, doubtlessly avoiding $4.8 billion in infrastructure growth prices,” Noruzoliaee says. And platooning vans’ capacity to take care of brief following distances permits extra vans to journey on a given stretch of roadway.
Within the Ohio–Indiana pilot venture, the second truck might be as shut as 30 meters behind the lead truck—a lot nearer than a human driver may safely handle. That’s as a result of the follower truck can react virtually instantaneously if the lead truck brakes all of a sudden. On closed tracks and in wind tunnel assessments, vans have been spaced as few as 4 meters aside. However on public roads, state legal guidelines require a lot bigger distances.
Noruzoliaee warns {that a} proliferation of carefully spaced platooned vans may speed up street put on. “This might justify limiting platooning on sure roads—like native streets or bridges—the place pavement wasn’t designed for these load patterns,” he says. “State DOTs ought to analyze these tradeoffs when planning for platooning at scale.”
And regardless of the system’s sophistication, Noruzoliaee cautions that autonomy within the follower truck stays a piece in progress. “This know-how can cut back cognitive load and fatigue for the follower,” he says, however the human driver within the follower truck ought to stay alert. City environments pose explicit challenges. Passenger vehicles and site visitors indicators can break up truck platoons, forcing the truck pairs to reform. And that, in flip, takes time and reduces gasoline financial savings.
Nonetheless, the retrofit-ready nature of the Kratos system ought to make it interesting to fleet operators. New capabilities—comparable to permitting the lead and follower vans to change positions—may make platooning much more versatile and commercially viable.
As testing continues alongside the I-70 hall, the acquainted roar of those superior vans’ engines may sign a sensible, incremental path to freight automation—particularly compared with the extra bold imaginative and prescient of absolutely autonomous vans, like these lately launched by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation.
Aurora’s self-driving vans, which started shuttling between Dallas and Houston in April, depend on AI, sensor fusion, and real-time decision-making to navigate highways with out human enter. However regardless of fast progress, fully autonomous trucks nonetheless face important hurdles—regulatory, technical, and public belief—that can possible delay broad adoption for years. Through the Aurora truck’s maiden voyage on public roadways, CEO Chris Urmson shared his pleasure about using within the again seat. Nonetheless, simply weeks later—and at a accomplice’s insistence—Aurora determined that the onboard human “observer” will sit within the driver’s seat as a substitute.
Whereas we watch for the driverless truck future, semiautonomous truck platooning might supply a extra inexpensive, lower-risk, and near-term possibility. As a result of the Kratos system might be retrofitted to present vans, a freight operator can introduce autonomy into the fleet with out having to put money into brand-new vans.
“Platooning is the subsequent step in constructing a resilient, fashionable freight community—one which’s safer, smarter, and extra environment friendly,” says Issue.
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