The Future of Trucking

the semi-truck our modern lives are completely dependent on them look around you every object you see he probably traveled on at least one big rig here in America truckers make up 2% of the workforce but with multiple game-changing technologies converging simultaneously and the relentlessness of the hyper competitive global marketplace the industry will be revolutionized within the next two decades this is an examination of the future of trucking before we get into the technology that will turn it all upside down we must first understand the way this extremely fragmented industry works now to the numbers there are about three million drivers for two and a half million trucks in the u.s. those trucks are owned by five hundred thirty two thousand carrier companies but 90% of these fleets have fewer than six trucks and half of all carriers are single individuals who own and operate their own rig then you have the middlemen the freight brokers these 13,000 companies play matchmaker between the manufacturers and wholesalers who are trying to get their goods to market and the retailers who make the final sale to the consumer because this industry is so splintered there aren't Universal software systems tying it all together in fact 67% of shippers don't use software at all and rely solely on paper records in 2017 this creates tremendous inefficiency when every piece of information has to be communicated through human interactions drivers are frequently forced to wait hours to book or pick up a load and sometimes they just don't an estimated 20 percent of trucks on the road or empty to solve these problems investors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on startups competing to develop silver-bullet a software layer that can be used by every segment of the industry another area ripe for modernization is how trucks are powered today medium and heavy-duty trucks account for six percent of the greenhouse gas emissions produced in America to their credit companies like Walmart are looking to transition to fleets powered by cleaner natural gas the bridge fuel America has embraced to transition to renewables and that's where Tesla comes in Elon Musk CEO of the electric car manufacturer plans to unveil an electric powered semi truck in the next six months battery range will be the biggest obstacle to widespread adoption of electric trucks as Tesla's pack we'll probably only have a two to three hundred mile range the other challenge will be having enough charging stations and enough power available at each station to support fleets of Tesla trucks the Nikola one attempts to overcome these limitations this gorgeous hydrogen fuel cell truck will have a range of 1,200 miles the young company plans to begin leasing their trucks by 2020 for about six thousand dollars a month including the cost of fuel but it will first need to build a network of about 400 charging stations throughout the country cutting the emissions of semi trucks is great for the environment but the real cost saving opportunity lies in cutting out the drivers it's been more than a year now since six convoys of semi autonomous smart trucks arrived at the Netherlands port city of Rotterdam after leaving factories from as far away as Sweden and southern Germany that experiment relied on a system called platooning a semi-autonomous feature allowing trucks to find each other link up and draft to cut down on wind drag saving energy just like in NASCAR or the Tour de France and in October a self-driving truck completed the first commercial shipment by an autonomous vehicle delivering a load of Budweiser more than 120 miles across Colorado a human got the truck on the highway and engaged the autonomous system then climbed out of the driver's seat that truck was made by Auto Motors which was recently acquired by uber and dozens of massive 240-ton trucks are already being used in Australian mines so that's the near future we'll see in the next 10 years fleets of driverless trucks some will be designed to be autonomous while others will have the system installed later many will be electric and nearly all will be connected to efficient networks that are not slowed down by frequent human input there is some skepticism though surrounding this vision of the future as seen in a recent panel discussion of Canadian trucking executives I don't think for a long time we're going to get to a place where there won't be a driver in the truck somebody skilled enough to take over if the system fails let's lace it we're doing business in Canada you know there's people out there that say trucks won't break down in the future sorry not well is uh you know sodium chloride being put on the road every day and eats away at wiring harnesses and battery voltage when it's minus 40 doesn't keep up and you know we're a different monster you know we all have friends in California and technology works really well down there a lot different here in the great white north these comments capture the strong sense of denial among those in the industry sure he has a point we may not see autonomous trucks hauling Freight on Ice Road Truckers anytime soon but counting on poor road conditions to slow down automation seems foolish technology and new materials will create a way to make it work the market forces are simply too strong not too Morgan Stanley estimates that making the american freight industry autonomous could save 170 billion dollars a year in labor fuel productivity and accident costs crashes involving big rigs killed 39 hundred americans in 2014 and injured another 110,000 in the longer term if the drivers will be cut out then we no longer need the tractor unit to pull the trailers because the trailers will be powered by their own rechargeable electric batteries and will have their own autonomous driving systems but let's go beyond self-driving trailers let's reimagine the whole system by combining the emerging autonomous technologies that are being used to transport goods within a factory with the autonomous self-driving systems for long-haul transport we can create an entirely new type of vehicle that will begin hauling trips as soon as it receives its cargo these freight transport vehicles can vary in size from small three by three foot cubes all the way up to traditional shipping container sized boxes by embracing this vision of the future sooner rather than later we can avoid wasting resources by leapfrogging the in-between stage of building new fleets of semi autonomous tractor-trailer trucks but there's obviously a big downside the imminent loss of millions of jobs will be an enormous challenge and will lead to an important debate about employment in the age of automation and the idea of a guaranteed Universal income also if large companies dominate the automated transport industry which seems likely it will add to income inequality the Muse's that these changes will happen in baby steps over more than a decade that's plenty of time to adapt and learn new skills needed for success in another career how do you see the future of freight transport playing out on our last video you seemed to share my excitement at Atlanta's futuristic new stadium but also my sense of concern that it may be a case of misplaced priorities by the people of Georgia until next time for TDC I'm Bryce plank

Channel: The Daily Conversation

Views: 1,214,634

Rating: 4.1063685 out of 5

Keywords: Future, trucking, autonomous, driverless, car, uber, tesla, elon musk, semitruck, semi-truck, transport, united states of america, truck, construction, rail, railway, cool, entertainment, volvo, audi, mercedes, ford, vlog, documentary, TDC, megaproject, future megaprojects, the daily conversation, computer, robot, otto, google, gm, electric, concept, new, walkthrough, test drive, fun, fast, train, shipping, freight, renewable, hydrogen, nikola, tractor trailer, tractor truck

Id: L_uW0_OvEkk

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 25 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/bonelessevil]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm sending my AI truck back if it doesn't talk shit on CB.

[u/ImCerealsGuys]

Add another layer on top of that and you got a bus truck. I'd hitch a ride on one.

[u/boytjie]

A big issue with the long-haul rigs, seems to be range anxiety. A system where electric trucks have so great a range they never need stop (theoretically). They would need to stop to pick up cargo and change tyres etc. A dedicated lane is set aside for the electrical semi with overhead charging lines. The stretch of charging pylon road is long enough for a full charge. When the autonomous semi hits the charging section (at battery limits) it deploys a trapeze (like electric trains) and charges up without stopping (maybe slowing down, depending on the length of the road). With truck rescheduling, it always charges during the day when power is super cheap thanks to solar and travels on battery power during the night charging only during the day.

[u/ThesaurusRex84]

It'll probably still have drivers in it for maintenance and supervision, just like airline pilots.