Rail and Autonomous Trucks

Link: Trains put up an analysis or op Ed piece on rail v autonomous trucking.

My two cents: There is a tremendous amount of road and traffic signaling infrastructure to be done in the US before the last 25 miles at each end (manufacturer to highway and highway to consignee) are ready for autonomous shipping by street.

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Tue Mar 29, 2022 11:41 am Link: Trains put up an analysis or op Ed piece on rail v autonomous trucking.

My two cents: There is a tremendous amount of road and traffic signaling infrastructure to be done in the US before the last 25 miles at each end (manufacturer to highway and highway to consignee) are ready for autonomous shipping by street.

Plus, liability and inclement weather functionality,
not to mention, what to do when the OS has a 10 year old exploit that allows someone to just have them diverted,
so no messy packages on ROW's when they get hacked.

There are still uses for cabooses… RR police guarding loads in high risk areas.

Recently the governor of The People's Republic of New York decreed that internal combustion vehicles will be outlawed within the next 25 years. Unless batteries improve markedly by then, they won't really be practical for long distance runs. For this I see two possible solutions. The first is that intermodal is used for long distance runs, and motor transport for the local drayage. With charging times being prohibitive, one solution may be to have replaceable battery packs.

I can see the points about how autonomous trucks can't adjust for poor road conditions... Maybe speed isn't what they'd go for. With no human contact, maybe a dedicated 30 mph road may be all that's needed. There would be no rush to fit in as many hours as possible into a driver's allowable driving periods.

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 7:50 pm https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07 ... g-program/

So,about those AV trucks...l