In a bid to get in on the action and capitalise on the growing trend of AI technology, the UK government has just issued £8.1mil in funding to get ‘self-driving’ lorries out on motorways across Britain.
As terrifying as that may sound, having long since associated the combination of lorries and machines with the murderous cyborg from Terminator 2, parliament have given the go ahead and we should expect to see them on the roads by the end of 2018.
The partially manned lorries will operate in threes or ‘platoons’, with one vehicle being driven and controlled entirely by a human while the other two will follow behind connected to the main operator through wireless technology.
Though human drivers are present in all three vehicles, only one will be driving with the other two drivers acting as a failsafe option to intercept any problems that could occur should the technology fail (or if the machines decide to turn on us).
Much like chatbots and AI technologies in business and the consumer world, the concept of the trucks was built to work with humans not replace them entirely and, this way, one human operator is able to brake, accelerate and steer three trucks at a time.
Alongside the obvious increased efficiency and profits the technology will bring to the distribution and courier industries, AI lorries are also reported to be much safer for other motorists and the lower usage of fuel and emissions is great news for the environment.
Funded by the Department for Transport and Highways England, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) will carry out the trials in three separate phases, with the first one focussing on the potential of platooning on Britain’s busy motorways.
Having already been trialled successfully in the US and Europe, the presence of this new technology demonstrates yet another example of how artificial intelligence is changing our world for the better and paints an exciting picture of things to come.
