At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.
And you are speaking from what exactly? You have come on here spouting your drivel about what you have read and have no experience of whatsoever. You speak like you know this. Please elaborate on your experience that you feel you may offer this amazing piece of knowledge?
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.
No good off road then?
Optimum:
No Driver Required: CA To Allow Completely Driverless Cars - TruckersReport.com
Interesting article, but further reading seems to suggest even in California with the lobbying of Hi-tech companies in Silicon Valley, there are still a lot of restrictions to the use of totally autonomous vehicles and the regulations are still in the consultancy process and if they are agreed the cars won’t actually take to the road until the middle of next year. It does seem to still be very much aimed at testing although they are allowing members of the public to ride in the vehicles for the first time. Might be an interesting if slightly unnerving experience, I expect we’ll see plenty of news articles in the near future where journalists get a ride in the vehicles.
Posted on wrong thread. 
robroy:
Posted on wrong thread.
I thought you were referring to Conor the Conman
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.
You`re quite right the DAF system is crap in even light mist through to fog snow etc., but are all systems like that?
Franglais:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.You`re quite right the DAF system is crap in even light mist through to fog snow etc., but are all systems like that?
MAN ones are. I’ve posted before what happened to mine.
Captain Caveman 76:
Franglais:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.You`re quite right the DAF system is crap in even light mist through to fog snow etc., but are all systems like that?
MAN ones are. I’ve posted before what happened to mine.
Id guess the sensors, other hardware, plus the software are all bought in, so Id not be surprised. Just wondering if there are any different systems out there?
Franglais:
Captain Caveman 76:
Franglais:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.You`re quite right the DAF system is crap in even light mist through to fog snow etc., but are all systems like that?
MAN ones are. I’ve posted before what happened to mine.
I
d guess the sensors, other hardware, plus the software are all bought in, so Id not be surprised. Just wondering if there are any different systems out there?
I too would love to Know the answer to this one Conor. any response from you?
Franglais:
Captain Caveman 76:
Franglais:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.You`re quite right the DAF system is crap in even light mist through to fog snow etc., but are all systems like that?
MAN ones are. I’ve posted before what happened to mine.
I
d guess the sensors, other hardware, plus the software are all bought in, so Id not be surprised. Just wondering if there are any different systems out there?
I was reading the other day that Samsung actually make some of the chips for Apple’s latest iPhone! I’d guess that a lot of the hardware is outsourced and is actually the same product, slightly changed for each vehicle manufacturer.
Franglais:
Id guess the sensors, other hardware, plus the software are all bought in, so Id not be surprised. Just wondering if there are any different systems out there?
Pretty much every truck manufacturer out there is developing and testing autonomous trucks. The systems are all the same, as you’ve suggested, they’re a mix of LIDAR, Ultrasonic senors and Video Cameras. I’m sure there are other sensors and methods, but they’re the most popular.
As for who’s out there and what’s out there, these are the ones that I know about the look promising:
Volvo - Volvo have long been developing autonomous vehicles. Their most recent effort is a joint venture to have garbage trucks running around in Sweden as a semi-autonomous test.
A human driver will do the majority of the driving, but the vehicle will autonomously back up down residential streets as they collect garbage from each house. The idea is to reduce
driving errors while reversing and to reduce the amount of guys needed in a trash crew. I’m sure they’re developing something for the general haulage industry, but I haven’t seen or
heard anything solid, as yet. The already have mining vehicles automated (as do Cat) but obviously this isn’t highway driving, which is what we’re interested in.
As a side note all the major plays in the heavy equipment industry (Cat, Kubota et al) have offerings to retrofit existing kit to be autonomous and are designing new kit to be autonomous from
the go (no operators cab, just servicing access!)
Waymo - Owned by Alphabet (who also own Google), the press has been excitability reporting about their endeavors to compete will Uber in the driver-less taxi market, but the CEO of Waymo
has already said that they’re not only developing a solution for trucks but are saying that the trucking element is something they’re pushing to complete development first. He’s effectively
intimated that they’re deeper into development than previously announced. Indeed they’re testing on US roads right now.
Another side note, Google is big in Artificial Intelligence and is using it’s experience with Deepmind to help Rolls Royse develop self-piloting ships.
Otto - Owned by Uber, again, testing on US public roads at the moment they have a decent system that’s already been used for one test delivery. Interestingly enough they’re not developing
a specific truck, but rather a kit that will be sold to operators which can be retrofitted to any tractor unit.
Daimler - Again, US centric they’re testing an autonomous freightliner in the US, Nevada no less. I would expect that the tech will eventually make into a future Actros possibly!
Tesla - Everyones probably heard about the electric truck they’re unveiling next month, but what you can bet with a great certainty is that it’ll come with sensors and tech already embedded into it that will enable Autopilot (as per their Model S and X cars). They’re very open about automation and they’ll follow the same route, provide driver monitored Autopilot and gather real-world
data from the driving experience and learn from that data. Trucks will be no different. In fact Tesla might have an advantage as they already probably have a massive dataset from their
cars, which they can use towards it’s autonomous truck driving aspirations. Nothing has been announce officially, we’ll have to wait until November 16th for that!
Although there is a US focus on the tech, at the moment, you can bet it’s hitting the UK soon. There is already testing that will go forward next year for autonomous trucks to form platoons.
As manufacturer built more driver assist tech into their vehicles they’ll gain more experience and data to push for full automation.
I’ve probably missed some aspects, but I’m doing this brain-dump from recent memory.
UKtramp:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.And you are speaking from what exactly? You have come on here spouting your drivel about what you have read and have no experience of whatsoever. You speak like you know this. Please elaborate on your experience that you feel you may offer this amazing piece of knowledge?
What we do know is that computers can’t outperform humans when it comes to the fine inputs needed to take off or land a plane in anything more than perfect calm conditions and usually more aggro than its worth in most other cases.So what makes the nerds think that they’d be any better in driving anything.Oh wait maybe that explains why the only robot trains are limited to the DLR and we’re seeing ever increasing reductions and dumbing down of the road speed regime because they know that the robots won’t be able to handle anything going much faster than a crawl on the ground.Let alone the knife edged 3 d aspects of flying a plane in anything much more than a totally straight line at height where there’s enough room to correct its zb ups.Although even then unless it’s the Air France 447 type of example. 
1 question, how would a computer react to a puncture on the steering axle? has it even been programmed how too?
Honestly I think autonomous vehicles will only rely work at low speed and in city centres, for taxis etc.
As has been said whilst the majority or driving could be done by computers there will always be a need for some form of human interaction.
I imagine the convoy system to be the most effective for use on motorways.
It’s not just the actual driving and turning and steering aspects, as said how can an autonomous vehicle cope with things that need human interaction.
I don’t claim to know at lot about autonomous vehicles but I don’t believe we will see fully autonomous vehicles in our lifetime.
I believe the cars and trucks of the not so distant future will not even have controls as we know them and passengers will have little or no control over what happens. Judging by a lot of the driving I see the input of your average human in an emergency is not desirable. If control is needed at some point should it go pear shaped then you will probably be able to make some slow speed maneuver using your i-phone or the equivalent, after downloading the relevant app of course.
Which raises the question in the future will the blind be able to own and use cars.
I don’t own a car I ride a motorbike, the thought of riding a computer controlled motorbike doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm. So how will motorbikes fit in, will they ban them, I doubt it as bikers have always been strong lobbyist and have defeated the EU bureaucrats on more than one occasion.
Actually I think I have just answered my own question when I remembered this
The question of autonomous trucks has been well documented on this forum already.
Of course it will happen one day…of that there is no doubt.
It won’t happen overnight, obviously, maybe by 2025 there will be ‘attended’ motorway convoys, followed by A roads with hubs, probably still attended.
It will be towards the end of this century that trunk routes will be autonomous…multi drop 18 ton trucks driven autonomously ■■?
Not for many, many, many years…
Check out today’s news about our transport infrastructure failing.
Carryfast:
UKtramp:
Conor:
At least a decade away from the UK due to the issues they’re having resolving not working in fog, snow or heavy rain. No doubt all of us who drive the newer DAF CFs with all the toys have witnessed the dash fill with yellow warning lights of this sensor not working, that not working, this turned off and that turned off as a result every time its snowed enough to give a light covering of the front of the wagon or its been raining heavy and there is a lot of spray from other vehicles? Seems that is a problem they can’t overcome at the moment.And you are speaking from what exactly? You have come on here spouting your drivel about what you have read and have no experience of whatsoever. You speak like you know this. Please elaborate on your experience that you feel you may offer this amazing piece of knowledge?
What we do know is that computers can’t outperform humans when it comes to the fine inputs needed to take off or land a plane in anything more than perfect calm conditions and usually more aggro than its worth in most other cases.So what makes the nerds think that they’d be any better in driving anything.Oh wait maybe that explains why the only robot trains are limited to the DLR and we’re seeing ever increasing reductions and dumbing down of the road speed regime because they know that the robots won’t be able to handle anything going much faster than a crawl on the ground.Let alone the knife edged 3 d aspects of flying a plane in anything much more than a totally straight line at height where there’s enough room to correct its zb ups.Although even then unless it’s the Air France 447 type of example.
Oh yes they can. You are living in the dark ages fella.
Heisenberrg:
The question of autonomous trucks has been well documented on this forum already.Of course it will happen one day…of that there is no doubt.
It won’t happen overnight, obviously, maybe by 2025 there will be ‘attended’ motorway convoys, followed by A roads with hubs, probably still attended.
It will be towards the end of this century that trunk routes will be autonomous…multi drop 18 ton trucks driven autonomously ■■?
Not for many, many, many years…
Check out today’s news about our transport infrastructure failing.
I can assure you it will not be many many years.I am off to NZ soon and when I get back I will hopefully be able to post some relevant info.
Sorry I cannot say anymore just now but it is more than my jobs worth.