Given the growth of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in trucking, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) has begun publishing a series of papers under the banner NACFE’s Perspective on Autonomous Trucking.
Departing from its usual approach to subjects via Confidence Reports, which are designed to help scale existing technology, and Guidance Reports, which focus on emerging technologies, NACFE is presenting the subject of AVs via thought leadership pieces. These aim to open more dialogue within and outside of the trucking industry on how to approach AVs.
“When it comes to autonomous trucking, we are in the nascent stages of its development and there is not enough data for us to issue a Guidance Report,” said Mike Roeth, NACFE’s executive director. “Although as we see the technology develop, we will engage a study team and explore the topic in-depth.”
In 2016, NACFE published a Confidence Report on Two-Truck Platooning, which is a technology along the pathway to fully autonomous trucking. The group expects to update this report in early 2021.
NACFE has compiled a series of brief papers on various aspects of autonomous trucking:
- The Age of Automated Logistics Arises
- The Five Forces Driving Disruption in Trucking Today
- Distribution Yards — An Early Autonomous Test Bed
“If there is an aspect of autonomous trucking you would like to see us address, please let us know. We want to make this section of our website as robust as possible," said Denise Rondini, NACFE’s communications director. "Our attempt with this project is not to be all-inclusive, but rather to try to shed some light on the subject of autonomous trucking and begin to have meaningful dialogue with industry stakeholders and others outside of trucking who have an interest in furthering the automation of trucking.”