When it comes to autonomous driving, some do not share the enthusiasm that many people in the industry have for this new technology. If we can't even manage to communicate with others on the road today, how are we going to ensure that these vehicles communicate with each other? While testing has shown that platooning and self-driving are possible, these exercises are typically done on empty roads.
Ensuring safety on busy highways will be a challenge and in this view, we are still many years away from truly automated driving. There is still a good deal of work to be done as the entire infrastructure needs to be prepared for it. In ports or at airports, where the routes are pre-defined, autonomous driving makes sense. However, for normal roads used by the general public there is still a high demand for professional drivers. This profession will not disappear for a long time, so in the meanwhile more effort should be put into driver training.
Another consideration we need to keep in mind is that any safety feature found in a vehicle can also fail. These systems need to be serviced and taken care off. The worst that can happen is that a system is not properly maintained and will fail when needed at a time when the driver is confident in and relying on that feature. Transport companies need to ensure that the safety features are being looked after and that a disconnected sensor is not taken lightly. Given the history and safety record of some trucking firms there is little assurance that they will do this any better with high tech safety features than they've done in the past.
We also need to do a bit more when it comes to understanding passenger car drivers and what they know about how trucks work. This is a collective effort that drivers can make. For instance, many people don't understand the dynamics of a truck when it is turning, accelerating or braking. Most people don't know about the safety features a truck may or may not have either. It is in "normal traffic" where a well-trained and safe driver will make a difference. As a story in Asian Trucker Singapore (Q2 Issue) about Volvo driving safety highlights, the public, whether driving or walking, must also be made aware of the challenges a truck driver faces.
Further improvements to the safety features of trucks will be made and perhaps a day will come when a truck never has an accident. Until that day comes every effort should be made to improve road safety by training drivers and ensuring that the trucks are well maintained and up to the task.
