Driverless trucks to begin tests in the UK

No need for long stories, but self-driving trucks are hitting the roads soon. Today, the news is all-over the place about autonomous vehicles such as Tesla's Model S and X and the new Model 3. Those are just typical examples. There are others from Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo and the likes. 

Retail chain giant, Walmart's autonomous distribution truck concept

The UK and Europe in general are currently on top of the game in ensuring that autonomous technology comes to reality. Already, the technology has been tested in the Netherlands with two separate cargo trucks which actually worked perfectly fine.

In the coming days, partially self-driving trucks would be tested on the major Highways in the British empire, expect to see them by the end of next year according to the government. The test would be carried out by Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), using a set of three trucks which would travel in a formation with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle. That reaffirms the regions's seriousness and readiness to take on the auto pilot tech evolution.

UK's stance on deployment of autonomous technology is not unconnected to the EU's goal on sustainable development where the future of automobiles is that which is saturated with electric vehicles.

The lead vehicle in the platoons will be controlled by a human driver and humans will also control the steering in lorries to the rear - though acceleration and braking will be mirrored.

This technology is a welcome idea as computers tend to be more accurate than humans in the aspect of mechanical handling and intelligent systems management, but we fear that such technology may cut jobs.

A Mercedes-Benz autonomous truck concept

Cargo trucks require human drivers, but allowing computers to take over the wheels would only lead to job loss.

There's only an exception - if the technology is deployed to only assist the human drivers in making their jobs easier. So in essence, the operator could hand over driving to the auto pilot while he takes a break from the wheels, doing other important things like confirming orders and next delivery locations.