What could possibly go wrong?
Western Producer- Autonomous truck tests planned for Alberta highways this winter
The Alberta Motor Transportation Association (AMTA) has launched Canada’s first program to test a platoon system of tractor trailers that will see the lead truck driven and the following truck using driver-assist technology.
The two-truck pilot project will see the lead vehicle driven by a trucker and the following semi monitored by a driver with the eventual idea to have both be operated in tandem by one operator.
The two platoon trucks operated by Bison Transport — named Daisy and Lily — will be tested over the winter on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway between Calgary and Edmonton, as well as between Calgary and Banff.
I’m going to take a wild guess here. The kind of drivers you need to pull something like this off have either left the industry already, or have one foot out the door.
I would want twice as much money to do this, but that’s just me.
Pretty sure Bison already runs turnpikes on the QE2, that’s one tractor pulling two 53′ trailers. So this only makes sense if the end goal is two turnpikes, which only reduces the driver count by 1. If we’re going to be doing this though, don’t see why we can’t just do Australian road trains of 4 trailers? The amount of braking force is the same, and there’s only a couple of hills on that road to slow them down. Regardless, turnpikes are really restricted in where they can travel, the turn radius is brutal, so it’s hard to see this being used anywhere but major highways. It’d be good for Yellowknife though, might reduce the price of lettuce by a buck. If the end game is to use them through the mountains though, that’s where it’ll get sporty.
The really fun part is “…fatigue management will also be studied with cameras and biometrics.” Which means heart/brain monitors and cameras constantly watching drivers , which seems like a pretty normal progression into a totally monitored and surveilled society. Of course the big-brain leaders in the company are free of surveillance, because they deserve their privacy, being so much better than us peasants that actually do the work.
Can’t dispute your logic, Tired. One more reason to steer clear of QE 2.
” . . . don’t see why we can’t just do Australian road trains of 4 trailers?”
Hey, ya know, I’ll bet if we laid down some sort of guide for them to follow or ride more than 4 trailers could be hauled in even greater safety.
Exactly. Sounds like a railroad. (Except more dangerous)
roadgames film
: … don’t see why we can’t just do Australian road trains of 4 trailers? ”
Bingo! Saved me some typing.
They been running trains with two 53 footers for a long time now.
I would think this would take a lot of skill and you right, drivers with the instinct to see whatever is wrong in a certain situation are getting close to retirement or already there. But then there goal I think is to go to full autonomous trucking. no employees just machines.
So the lead truck runs into problems, the driver reacts and the second truck does the same? For example, if the lead truck blows a steering axle tire and runs off the road into the ditch, the second truck, with intact tires follows him into the ditch?
It rarely happens but steering axle tires do blow. I had it happen on the left tire of an empty truck at highway speed. It is impossible to keep the truck driving straight., By the time I got it stopped I was on the left shoulder of the road. Thankfully there was no traffic coming toward me, it could have been disastrous.
steering axles do blow
Yup, happened to me on the bridge on 22X (Calgary) many years ago. Pretty near bought the farm then.
…progression into a totally monitored and surveilled society
Yup, you’re getting it.
big-brain leaders in the company are free of surveillance
This is where it’s all leading to, isn’t it? The class divisions of Brave New World, the alphas, betas, gammas, deltas. Of course, two weaknesses I detected in the novel was that divisions in a power structure are more dependent upon psychopathology than IQ. The greater your ruthlessness and self-absorption, and the lower your empathy, the higher you rise in the power structure. The second weakness in my view was that in a technocratic and mechanized society, there really is no need for the lower orders. All drudge labours have been replaced by automata. Furthermore, when the singularity eventually happens, there’ll be no “need” for the upper orders either. Humanity…will one day be as extinct as the Krell.
You never really had the privacy you thought. In any event, this is about massive cost savings, not ‘monitoring’ people.
A camera pointing at your face for 14 hours a day is monitoring, troll. What word would you use for it? Just because perverts pay for what you do to yourself on Onlyfans, doesn’t mean the rest of us want to spend our lives like that.
When I drive to and from my house in B. C., it’s bad enough that I have to deal with some lead-footed cowboy pulling a full trainer who thinks that 110 km/hr is too slow for him.
Now I might eventually have to deal with some robot that does the same?
I’ve had Bison trucks almost force me off the road twice on the #1 south of Calgary by changing lanes without checking – and that was under a 1 driver 1 truck scenario. What could possibly go wrong?
Robotic driverless technology for the Ag sector is only available in very limited applications. Nothing hitting the dealer lots just yet. This tells me that there are still a lot of bugs to be worked out. It makes more sense to work these out in a farm field first before taking to the highways. But since this project seems to have lots of government funding, these considerations can be safely discarded?
Winter is the perfect time to do it too. Another well thought out decision by ‘SWIFT North’.
Of course its Bison behind this mess. They are everything that is wrong with the industry.
Isn’t this why they invented trains?
So two double trailer trucks following each other rather closely? Almost 500feet of “truck” in the slow lane on #2 in winter.
Think I’ll have a #2 passing that, impossible in a flurry or slushy condition.
It could be worst, they could be using rag heads (sihks), those sum bitches just can’t drive!
The Revolution proceeds. Soon we won’t need truck drivers at all except for a small elite few to train the AIs. I love the smell of automation in the morning, and the rest of the day too.
This discussion was rolling along nicely, then predictably you bring up your pitiful, fanciful perversions. Quel suprise!
One driver splitting his/her attention between the road and a monitor for the following truck. With 19-21 gauges on the dashboard and more on the electronic screen plus the screen and gauges from the trailing unit I see a major overload of information. Then there is the practical considerations involving four wheelers changing lanes as if they are driving in town. I taught students that the area two seconds in front of a semi was the “dead zone” for reason. It can take up to that long before the driver reaction time plus time to full brake application at the rear; it can be two seconds and with double 53’s it could easily be longer. With automation (we tried the automatic distance on trucks with mixed results. When it worked, sure. When it didn’t it was harrowing indeed) on Hwy 2 I can see the separation becoming too great for the system to overcome unless the trailing truck is drafting. In winter. On a notoriously slippery highway.
And I thought electronic distractions were illegal because they…
…distracted. I drove truck on and off for fifty years including very old and the latest greatest. I’m good at it. Monitoring a second truck would be a headache in short order.
I think this will be a fail for a number of reasons at least at first. I know in the states they tried fully automated trucks but a qualified driver still had to be on board.
Great! 80 000 lbs of truck with a teenager newly minted out a license mill reading a comic book or playing video games, but qualified and behind the wheel.
My winter experiences tell me that we can expect more ditchings from the driven truck and even more from driverless truck. On Alberta’s busiest highway.