There’s a big help wanted sign for truck drivers. The American Truck Associations says the country needs about 60,000 more drivers.
The association states that some of the biggest causes of the trucking shortage are people aging out of the workforce and difficulties finding qualified drivers. Instead of addressing these issues, autonomous vehicle company Gatik is simply taking the driver out of the equation.
That’s where the autonomy comes in. So, automation is the only long-term viable option," said Gatik CEO Gautam Narang.
Gatik is building self-driving trucks to deliver all kinds of products. (Gatik)
Gatik currently has more than 100 self-driving trucks on the road, with most of them in Texas, Arkansas and Canada.
And that’s just the beginning.
We’re talking about deploying hundreds and eventually thousands of trucks for some of the largest, private fleets in the world," said Narang.
Gatik wants their trucks to save people time and money.
Gatik currently has more than 100 self-driving trucks in Texas, Arkansas and Canada. (Gatik)
"We are enabling our customers, which are some of the largest retailers, to move goods more frequently and without the additional cost. We don’t want our customers to pass on the cost of transportation to their consumers," said Narang.
But, safety comes first, especially when there’s no one behind the wheel.
"There’s a fundamental trade-off between safety and efficiency. And getting that balance is actually super tricky. You don’t want to be doing this on the road. You want to as much as possible [to] figure out this appropriate balance in simulation," said Stanford aeronautics professor Mykel Kochenderfer.
Gatik plans to expand their operations this year. (Gatik)
Kochenderfer added that autonomous vehicle companies need to take baby steps, starting with limited deployments to ensure safety.
"I don’t think it’s possible to build a completely safe system because there are always completely unexpected events. But I do believe that there’s a lot of opportunity to drive much safer than human drivers," said Kochenderfer.
The American Trucking Associations doesn’t see autonomous vehicles as a replacement for truckers. Instead, they see them as a way to help out the industry where they are needed most, like for demanding long hauls.