The pair of semi vans 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 mission that might reshape America’s freight business.
Launched in April via a joint initiative between the Ohio and Indiana Departments of Transportation (DOTs), the mission exams semi-autonomous “platooning” know-how, through which a lead truck operated by a human driver is linked to a follower truck by way of 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 headcount. Together with addressing the nation’s persistent truck driver scarcity, It might probably additionally enhance security and enhance gasoline effectivity.
Ohio Division 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 sensible mobility initiative inside the Ohio DOT. “By collaborating throughout state traces and sectors, we’re paving the best way for smarter, safer, and extra environment friendly freight motion.”
What’s truck platooning?
For the pilot mission, Kratos Protection, a San Diego–based mostly protection contractor identified for its autonomous navy programs, 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 will be retrofitted to current vans and is designed to be sturdy in high-interference environments. It makes use of dual-channel, frequency-hopping communications and 256-bit AES encryption. The vans can swap between two radio frequencies—915 megahertz and a pair of.4 gigahertz—to keep up a safe connection whilst they roll via digital tollbooths, which largely use 915 MHz.
“There’s no Wi-Fi, no mobile, no Bluetooth,” says Maynard Issue, vice chairman 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 % much less gasoline by staying within the low-pressure wake of the lead truck, whereas the lead truck’s gasoline financial system improves by a number of % 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 assist backup drivers who don’t have industrial driver’s licenses; the eventual aim is to don’t have any driver within the second car. Alternatively, if each drivers are certified, they will swap 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.”
Execs and cons of truck platooning
If platooning turns into widespread, trucking firms might save some huge cash. A 2021 U.S. Division of Power research on truck platooning discovered that nationwide spontaneous platooning—the place vans from completely different areas encounter one another on the street and wirelessly pair up whereas they’re headed in the identical route—might save almost US $1 billion a yr in gasoline, says Mohamadhossein Noruzoliaee, an assistant professor of civil engineering on the College of Texas Rio Grande Valley and coauthor of the research. “It additionally will increase street capability by about 8 %, probably avoiding $4.8 billion in infrastructure growth prices,” Noruzoliaee says. And platooning vans’ means to keep up quick following distances permits extra vans to journey on a given stretch of roadway.
Within the Ohio–Indiana pilot mission, the second truck will be as shut as 30 meters behind the lead truck—a lot nearer than a human driver might 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 exams, vans have been spaced as little as 4 meters aside. However on public roads, state legal guidelines require a lot bigger distances.
Noruzoliaee warns a proliferation of intently spaced platooned vans might 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 trade-offs 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 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—might make platooning much more versatile and commercially viable.
As testing continues alongside the I-70 hall, the acquainted roar of those superior vans’ engines might sign a sensible, incremental path to freight automation—particularly when put next with the extra bold imaginative and prescient of totally autonomous vans, like these just 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, totally autonomous vans nonetheless face important 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 backseat. Nevertheless, simply weeks later—and at a companion’s insistence—Aurora determined that the onboard human “observer” will sit within the driver’s seat as an alternative.
Whereas we look ahead to the driverless truck future, semi-autonomous truck platooning could supply a extra reasonably priced, lower-risk, and near-term choice. As a result of the Kratos system will be retrofitted to current 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, fashionable freight community—one which’s safer, smarter, and extra environment friendly,” says Issue.
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