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 business.
Launched in April by way of a joint initiative between the Ohio and Indiana Departments of Transportation (DOTs), the venture checks semiautonomous “platooning” know-how, during which a lead truck operated by a human driver is linked to a follower truck through encrypted, military-grade communications. Alerts 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 will probably additionally enhance 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 inside the Ohio DOT. “By collaborating throughout state traces 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–primarily based protection contractor recognized 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 may be retrofitted to present vans and is designed to be strong 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 pair of.4 gigahertz—to keep up 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 improvement 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 just a few p.c as a result of it experiences much less turbulence at its rear, in line with researchers.
Within the one-year Ohio–Indiana pilot, the follower truck features a human backup driver. Issue says that the system can assist backup drivers who don’t have business driver’s licenses; the eventual aim is to haven’t any driver within the second car. Alternatively, if each drivers are certified, they will 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 an alternative of sidelining it.”
Professionals 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 totally different places encounter one another on the street and wirelessly pair up whereas they’re headed in the identical course—may save practically 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 research. “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 keep up quick following distances permits extra vans to journey on a given stretch of roadway.
Within the Ohio–Indiana pilot venture, the second truck may 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 immediately. On closed tracks and in wind tunnel checks, 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 proscribing 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 scale 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 specific challenges. Passenger vehicles and site visitors alerts 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—reminiscent of 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 in comparison with the extra bold imaginative and prescient of totally autonomous vans, like these not too long ago 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 speedy progress, fully autonomous trucks nonetheless face vital hurdles—regulatory, technical, and public belief—that may possible delay broad adoption for years. Through the Aurora truck’s maiden voyage on public roadways, CEO Chris Urmson shared his pleasure about driving 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 an alternative.
Whereas we await the driverless truck future, semiautonomous truck platooning might supply a extra inexpensive, lower-risk, and near-term choice. As a result of the Kratos system may be retrofitted to present vans, a freight operator can introduce autonomy into the fleet with out having to spend money on brand-new vans.
“Platooning is the subsequent step in constructing a resilient, trendy freight community—one which’s safer, smarter, and extra environment friendly,” says Issue.
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