Self-Trucking Trucks By David H. Freedman
Mark Udowiczyk
Professor Russell
English 102
26 February, 2018
The Future of Trucking
The future of transportation will involve the most drastic change in the industry since the transition from horse to automobile: Computer Automation. In the article, “Self-Trucking Trucks,” by David H. Freedman, the author describes the benefits and drawbacks to automation in the trucking sector. The author interviews the product manager of Otto, a company who specializes in up-fitting vehicles with self-driving technology; and then gathers opinions from a couple of career truckers who are presented with the idea and technology. The author particularly argues that the automation of trucking will definitely increase the efficiency of trucking, cut back on accidents …show more content…
When the author toured the Otto up-fitting facility in San Francisco, the product manager, Eric Berdinis, showed the unique technology involved. The author writes, “The equipment includes four forward-facing video cameras, radar, and a box of accelerometers that Berdinis boasts is ‘as close as the government allows you to get to missile guidance quality.’” (Freedman) It also included a state of the art liar system, and a compact supercomputer that was built especially to process all the data that comes from the sensors surveying the road. These technologies, and along with others, will allow the truck to safely travel through the roads without driver input, but the system still requires that drivers …show more content…
The author writes that, “More than 90 percent of all accidents are caused at least in part by some form of driver error……..but tests of self-driving cars suggest the technology will cut down on mistakes,” (Freedman). Although automation in trucking is fairly new, the automation testing in cars has been in longer existence. The author states that in Google’s automated car tests there is encouragement, “with only 20 crashes over seven years and millions of miles. Only one of the crashes was found to be the fault of the car: a traffic merging situation of the sort that Otto hands off to the driver,” (Freedman). This is a good sign that the technology has been able to adapt to diverse driving conditions and situations, however, it can hardly be applied to trucking because of complication in its operation due to the huge size of the machine, the difference in controls between a car and a truck, and the sensors in taking different data than a car due to the different designs of each. Despite that, the technology currently being offered will only assist the driver, who can take over at any time. In doing so, it eliminates the safety setback setup by cars, in that the driver has to take over a traffic merging situation. Otto has been able to prove its technology by letting, “Otto-outfitted self-driving truck carried 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer 200 kilometers down Interstate 25 in
Professor Russell
English 102
26 February, 2018
The Future of Trucking
The future of transportation will involve the most drastic change in the industry since the transition from horse to automobile: Computer Automation. In the article, “Self-Trucking Trucks,” by David H. Freedman, the author describes the benefits and drawbacks to automation in the trucking sector. The author interviews the product manager of Otto, a company who specializes in up-fitting vehicles with self-driving technology; and then gathers opinions from a couple of career truckers who are presented with the idea and technology. The author particularly argues that the automation of trucking will definitely increase the efficiency of trucking, cut back on accidents …show more content…
When the author toured the Otto up-fitting facility in San Francisco, the product manager, Eric Berdinis, showed the unique technology involved. The author writes, “The equipment includes four forward-facing video cameras, radar, and a box of accelerometers that Berdinis boasts is ‘as close as the government allows you to get to missile guidance quality.’” (Freedman) It also included a state of the art liar system, and a compact supercomputer that was built especially to process all the data that comes from the sensors surveying the road. These technologies, and along with others, will allow the truck to safely travel through the roads without driver input, but the system still requires that drivers …show more content…
The author writes that, “More than 90 percent of all accidents are caused at least in part by some form of driver error……..but tests of self-driving cars suggest the technology will cut down on mistakes,” (Freedman). Although automation in trucking is fairly new, the automation testing in cars has been in longer existence. The author states that in Google’s automated car tests there is encouragement, “with only 20 crashes over seven years and millions of miles. Only one of the crashes was found to be the fault of the car: a traffic merging situation of the sort that Otto hands off to the driver,” (Freedman). This is a good sign that the technology has been able to adapt to diverse driving conditions and situations, however, it can hardly be applied to trucking because of complication in its operation due to the huge size of the machine, the difference in controls between a car and a truck, and the sensors in taking different data than a car due to the different designs of each. Despite that, the technology currently being offered will only assist the driver, who can take over at any time. In doing so, it eliminates the safety setback setup by cars, in that the driver has to take over a traffic merging situation. Otto has been able to prove its technology by letting, “Otto-outfitted self-driving truck carried 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer 200 kilometers down Interstate 25 in