Skip to main content

Next year, convoys of self-driving trucks will be driving on U.K. roads

Only 30 years ago, the idea of convoys of self-driving trucks would have been a high concept horror movie setup straight out of the Stephen King playbook. Jump forward to 2017, and the U.K. government has just announced that it is greenlighting a trial of the technology on public roads. How far we’ve come!

The technology involves connecting two or more autonomous trucks together using Wi-Fi-based “vehicle-to-vehicle communication” technology so that they operate as a single unit. It’s not entirely autonomous in the sense of having no human involvement whatsoever. Instead, the lead vehicle is controlled by a human driver, with the other self-driving trucks in the convoy following behind in close pursuit. While the other trucks use autonomous technology in their driving, it is the job of the human driver at the front to control the speed and direction of all the vehicles in the convoy, with the others following his or her lead with zero reaction time.

Recommended Videos

The rationale behind it is that convoys of multiple trucks will require less space on the highway, can take advantage of the slipstreams created by the lead vehicle to reduce carbon emissions, and will help get the public used to self-driving vehicles.

The $10.5 million trial is scheduled to start sometime in 2018. Prior to that, the trucks and human drivers are being put through their paces using a combination of training courses, simulations, and test track trials.

“The U.K. has an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world in trialing connected vehicle platoons in a real-world environment,” said Rob Wallis, CEO of the Transport Research Foundation (TRL). “TRL and its consortium of leading international partners, have the practical and technical knowledge gained from previous projects to understand what is required to put a connected vehicle platoon onto U.K. roads safely. The team is now taking that expertise and uniquely applying it within live traffic operations.”

With similar tech already tested in Singapore and parts of Europe, TRL’s trials are not a world-first. However, the U.K. trial represents one more step on the road to making self-driving vehicles an everyday technology.

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Self-driving vehicle rules set to loosen under Trump, report says
self driving looser rules trump screenshot 2024 10 at 54 56 pm 6708947b14810

Tesla “has been very clear the future is autonomous,” CEO Elon Musk said in October, shortly after unveiling the Cybercab, Tesla’s self-driving robotaxi.

It now seems that Musk, who was recently nominated to lead a newly-created "Department of Government Efficiency," is sharing his crystal ball with the incoming Trump administration.

Read more
Waymo, Nexar present AI-based study to protect ‘vulnerable’ road users
waymo data vulnerable road users ml still  1 ea18c3

Robotaxi operator Waymo says its partnership with Nexar, a machine-learning tech firm dedicated to improving road safety, has yielded the largest dataset of its kind in the U.S., which will help inform the driving of its own automated vehicles.

As part of its latest research with Nexar, Waymo has reconstructed hundreds of crashes involving what it calls ‘vulnerable road users’ (VRUs), such as pedestrians walking through crosswalks, biyclists in city streets, or high-speed motorcycle riders on highways.

Read more
Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say
Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Read more