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Einride, a company based in Gothenburg (Göteborg), Sweden, has a vision that lowers these hurdles slowing the adoption of both alternative energy and self-driving technologies in hauling. The key change? Take the driver out of the vehicle with a hybrid of self-driving and remote control.
Einride plans to have their driverless (windowless, even) T-pods plying the route between Gothenburg and Helsingborg by 2020. The 7-meter (23- feet) long vehicle can carry 15 standard pallets and up to 20 tons. The trucks roll through their highway distances in fully automated mode. But when they near population centers, the T-pods can be put under remote control, with a human managing the navigation.
With no paid personnel on board to be bored and useless during long charging cycles, electric motors begin to make more sense. The T-pods can travel 200 km (124 miles) on a single charge, and stops at charging stations add little to the overall costs of haulage compared to traditional rigs that have down-time during driver resting periods. Remote drivers can simply switch their attention to a different vehicle when one T-pod stops for recharging. Which is a good thing, because even the run up and down the Swedish coastline between Gothenburg and Helsingborg may be a bit out of range without a top-up along the way.
Maybe all those hours playing Starcraft did not go to waste after all--perfect training to be an Einride operator.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:35AM
Don't exaggerate the technical requirements. 4k resolution? 10ms latency? Nuts. The average driver reaction time is on the order of 500ms, for which 100ms latency would be fine - ugly, but fine. To fix the ugly, make it 50ms. A 4k resolution is also unnecessary; A standard monitor resolution would be more then adequate.
Bandwidth is not necessarily a problem - if this becomes widespread, it will get dedicated spectrum. Moreover, you don't need to control all vehicles all of the time. You only need human control when the vehicles are at the end of a defined journey (off the major roads, say), or when a vehicle yells for help because something unexpected happened. In the latter case, the vehicle can stop and wait for human help.
What one may want to rethink is the way information is displayed. We are used to looking out of our windshield, but an eagle-eye view from the top, showing the situation around the entire vehicle, might be more useful. Or, perhaps, some combination of the two.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.