The pair of semi vans cruising down Interstate 70 between Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis could seem unremarkable at first look. However these rigs are a part of a groundbreaking pilot mission that would reshape America’s freight trade.
Launched in April by means of a joint initiative between the Ohio and Indiana Departments of Transportation (DOTs), the mission checks semi-autonomous “platooning” expertise, by which a lead truck operated by a human driver is linked to a follower truck through encrypted, military-grade communications. Indicators 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 may well additionally enhance security and enhance gas 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 expertise 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–primarily based protection contractor recognized for its autonomous army methods, tailored its battlefield vehicle-following expertise 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 could 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 AES encryption. The vans can change between two radio frequencies—915 megahertz and a couple of.4 gigahertz—to keep up a safe connection at the same time as they roll by means of digital tollbooths, which principally use 915 MHz.
“There’s no Wi-Fi, no mobile, no Bluetooth,” says Maynard Issue, vp 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 gas by staying within the low-pressure wake of the lead truck, whereas the lead truck’s gas financial system improves by a couple of % 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 help backup drivers who don’t have industrial driver’s licenses; the eventual objective is to don’t have any driver within the second automobile. 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 expertise helps the workforce as a substitute of sidelining it.”
Professionals and cons of truck platooning
If platooning turns into widespread, trucking corporations might save some huge cash. A 2021 U.S. Division of Vitality research on truck platooning discovered that nationwide spontaneous platooning—the place vans from completely different areas encounter one another on the highway and wirelessly pair up whereas they’re headed in the identical course—might save almost US $1 billion a yr in gas, 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 highway capability by about 8 %, doubtlessly avoiding $4.8 billion in infrastructure enlargement 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 mission, the second truck could 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 instantly. On closed tracks and in wind tunnel checks, 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 carefully spaced platooned vans might speed up highway 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 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 expertise 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 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 gas financial savings.
Nonetheless, the retrofit-ready nature of the Kratos system ought to make it interesting to fleet operators. New capabilities—similar to 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 compared 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 fast progress, totally autonomous vans nonetheless face important hurdles—regulatory, technical, and public belief—that may doubtless delay broad adoption for years. Throughout the Aurora truck’s maiden voyage on public roadways, CEO Chris Urmson shared his pleasure about using 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 a substitute.
Whereas we await the driverless truck future, semi-autonomous truck platooning might provide a extra inexpensive, lower-risk, and near-term possibility. As a result of the Kratos system could be retrofitted to present vans, a freight operator can introduce autonomy into the fleet with out having to put money into 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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