Whoosh. Moore’s law observes that technological advancement is exponential. And rapid.
Whoosh, there it goes again.
The world we were born into is very different from the one we’ll leave. Likewise, despite the fact that, due to funding issues, we’re still driving on 50-year-old roads and bridges, those aren’t going to be the same either. As our computers have doubled in speed and halved in size every couple years since the 1970s, the logistics, not to mention the highways themselves, in 2050 may be unrecognizable from the transportation system we know today.
The quantity of new technology and pace of change is not skipping the trucking industry. In fact, in many ways the industry is on the forefront of developing and implementing far-reaching technological advances that will benefit all of us on the roads.
As easy as driving seems (we let 16-year-olds do it, after all), humans aren’t particularly good at it. We get distracted and sleepy. Our reflexes deteriorate as we get older, and none of this is true for machines. There is so much risk when we have to share the road with other drivers because we can’t trust that they haven’t been drinking or won’t be texting or have had a good night’s rest or 20/20 vision. The more we transfer that trust to technology, the safer our roads are going to be.
In some ways, advancement is already here in the form of devices that automate manual processes.
This is the case for Electronic Logging Devices, which enable commercial vehicle drivers to log their hours electronically through devices inside their trucks, ensuring that drivers don’t drive for days without sufficient rest to keep them alert when the wheels are rolling. Large fleets are already using the devices to track driver hours, but a soon-to-be-implemented mandate will require ELDs in all commercial trucks. So many traditional workplaces have already transitioned away from paper records and time-keeping, and now it is only a matter of months before that technology will be in all trucks on the road.
More impressive than advances that replace paperwork is the technology that allows vehicles to broadcast and receive messages on emergency braking, front collision risks and curve speeds. Like ELDs, this kind of telematics is already being used in a lot of fleets while DOT drafts rules for implementing it across the industry, and the safety payoff is obvious.
This vehicle-to-vehicle technology will improve the safety of our roads by sharing data in real time between vehicles, broadcasting location, speed, brake status, steering wheel position to other vehicles in an area. Trucks can be alerted when cars maneuver into their many blind spots. Vehicle-to-vehicle technology represents the next generation of auto safety improvements building on the life-saving achievements we’ve already seen with items we now take for granted like safety belts and air bags.
This kind of wireless information-sharing ability of machines changes human responsibility inside the cab and also during roadside inspections. More inspections are possible when information about a driver, their hours, and vehicle status are transmitted to an inspection officer as soon as the truck enters a sensing radius. The question of how to keep this data secure hasn’t been fully answered yet though, because each time a technology adds convenience and previously unseen efficiency to our lives, our rule makers have to catch up to regulate new processes that progress enables.
For example, this summer, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalized its rule requiring electronic stability control systems on heavy trucks and large buses by 2017. The technology has been required in passenger cars for several years and available for heavy trucks, though not mandated until recently. Stability control automatically maintains directional control in instances where a driver cannot brake or steer quickly enough to avoid crashing, and by extending the technology to all fleets, the NHTSA estimates 1,759 crashes will be avoided and 49 lives saved every year.
As older vehicles are phased out, stability control systems will continue to become as common as windshield wipers and headlights and similarly will revolutionize the safety landscape of travel.
We can hardly predict what logistics tasks will be turned over to machines next. Autonomous cars were the sci-fi fantasies of yesteryear, but the truth is that there are dozens more technologies on the brink of revolutionizing how we and all our freight travel.
It isn’t all as sexy as self-driving cars, but I can think of no brighter a future for travel than uncongested, open lanes and a long row of big trucks platooned wirelessly and filled to the brim with some life-saving serum routed toward a remote hospital, where driverless forklifts have been alerted through geofencing to prepare to unload.
Or a shipper ordering a pickup through an Uber-like app on her phone while warehouse robots clear the dock.
Or trucks that autobrake before a driver’s reflexes have reacted to a sudden cut-off.
Or yellow highway lines painted with smart paint that warn of lane departures and vehicles that correct themselves before we can say, “Whoosh.”
Though these technologies are already here and spreading across the industry, it is hard to imagine what changes to our supply chains will look like any more than the engineers who operated the first computers could predict that 40 years later everyone would have a much more powerful machine, fast and tiny enough to fit in back pockets or around wrists.
2015 has been the year of autonomous vehicle hype, and that hype seems to offer a lot of promise. But who can predict which technology we embrace and which we forget in pursuit of something better, more energy-efficient and safer? So. Much. Safer.
Whatever the future of transportation looks like, it is rapidly approaching. Whoosh.
