Self-driving lorries – the future of the industry

The latest batch of technology may very well bring a radical change in the industry of professional removals. Ever since several years ago it was announced that Google – and then Tesla – is working on self-driving cars, e.g. vehicles that do not require a person steering the driving wheel, rumors began to spread that in addition to personal vehicles the new technology is going to be applied in lorries used for transportation of goods as well. Recently a plan for testing those new self-driving lorries on British soil was announced.

Self-driving lorries may very well bring a revolution in the business. The model, as experts envision it, sounds nearly ideal. The idea is that those trucks, once loaded, are going to travel in packs, like a caravan. Just a meter or so is going to be the distance between each vehicle and neither of it would require an experienced driver, because the GPS system and the other advanced gadgets that are going to be on board would be sufficient to do the work. This will radically reduce the costs of the removal being underway, and would probably mean faster and safer transportation. There are some problems however.

First and foremost, many voices of concern have been heard about the intimidation factor such groups of large vehicles travelling together would have on regular participants in the traffic. Since the self-driving lorries are going to travel on a route that has been pre-programmed there is a high risk of incidents because there are many variables on the road, as any experienced driver can tell you, variables that cannot be envisioned in full by computer programs. The real problem is that the self-driving technology is still far from perfect. Tests are carried out as we speak and as you can imagine, accidents are far from being a thing from the past.

The risks for other drivers on the road, as well as those of traffic-jams and so on may have a novel solution however, proponents of the self-driving lorries project say. There would be a specially designated lane on roads on which such vehicles would be allowed to travel, a lane that is going to be reserved exclusively for them. As for the imperfections in the technology that is standing behind the self-driving vehicles, and the self-driving lorries in particular, the same proponents say that with some more work they would be straightened out. We are left to wonder if that is indeed the case.

While tests on self-driving lorries are planned for some time in 2016, we are still more than certain the age when skilled experienced drivers to help you with you with your home removal would be obsolete is a thing of the far future.

Self driving lorries – pros and cons