Moderation Team
US autonomous truck company TuSimple recently completed a logistics first, transporting watermelons more than 1,500 km without any human control over the truck. According to Australia New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative, the peak industry advisory body for automated vehicles and its executive director, Rita Excell, the US trial has proven how far vehicle automation has progressed.
“TuSimple were in Australia in 2019 and they came out to meet with a number of our partners to get a better understanding of what the opportunities were in Australia,” she said. “Australia is a world leader in [remotely controlled] heavy vehicles for commercial applications in mines. We’re definitely unprecedented with our experience and the level of autonomy.”
However, automated road freight haulage faced challenges in Australia, Ms Excell said, due to infrastructure that was not fit for purpose, except for parts of the eastern states.
Apart from improving the quality of major freight routes, Ms Excell said for vehicle automation to thrive in Australia, line markings and telecommunications also needed improvement, especially in regional and rural areas.
“We need wider lanes, a minimum of 3.5 to 3.8m lanes and, in regional areas, we don’t come anywhere near that,” she told abc.net.au. “There is lifesaving technology on vehicles like trucks that are sold today that can’t operate because of our deficient infrastructure in regional areas.”
Source: www.freshplaza.com
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