Automatics without the people
Driverlesss vehicles, which seem to have been ‘just five years away’ for at least the last two decades, will be a step closer to being legal to operate on the UK’s roads from 2026 following the passage of the Automated Vehicles Act through parliament prior to the recent general election. While, theoretically, autonomous vehicles (notably buses) are already operating on UK roads, they require the presence of a ‘safety driver’ whose responsibilities include taking the blame for any breach of law committed by the vehicle.
The passage of the Act provides some welcome sharpening of the legalities of autonomous operations. While, in other markets, vehicle manufacturers and system developers have been testing the water with little or no guidance as to the legal consequences of a system failure and any resultant crash, British law now provides absolute clarity: any self-driving vehicle approved for use on public roads will have to have a corresponding “authorised self-driving entity,” which will be responsible for the conduct of the vehicle when in self-driving, or, as the Act terms it “no user in charge” (NUIC), mode.
The entity may not be the vehicle manufacturer: it could also be the software developer, or even an insurer paid to shoulder the risk. The legislation is also clear that the human driver will not be liable for incidents related to driving while the vehicle is in NUIC.
This extends liability from accidents to motoring offences: suitable fines then will presumably be imposed on the entity if the self-driving vehicle commits a ‘victimless’ offence such as speeding, running a red light, or obstructing a yellow-box junction. Quite who or what takes the accompanying penalty points that would otherwise be imposed on the human driver is still unclear.
DRIVER ASSISTANCE AMBIGUITY
The new law also contains provisions against the misleading marketing of a mish-mash of existing driver assistance programs such as autonomous braking and lane keeping assistance as ‘self-driving’. No doubt this decision has been taken with one eye on the antics of Tesla in North America, whose ‘autopilot’ and ‘full self-driving’ features have been shown to be rather less capable than their names might suggest to the unbiased observer. Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, insists – despite plenty of contrary evidence – that vehicles don’t need sophisticated sensors such as lidar to control themselves. He is also notorious for promising that Tesla’s vehicles will be genuinely self-driving “next year” for every year of the last decade.
But American legislators have cottoned on to Musk’s regular repetition at last: the manufacturer’s systems and marketing are now being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Justice Department, but only after being linked to hundreds of crashes and dozens of deaths.
The British Act hopefully nips this issue in the bud and will build on existing controls of how such systems are advertised. Currently, manufacturers who are advertising any driving aid ‘must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation’ and ‘must not mislead by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product or service’.
Elsewhere, the Act states: ‘Safety claims must not exaggerate the benefit to consumers’ and this would appear to include any unsubstantiated claim that an autonomous system might be safer than human driving. Police are granted power to stop and seize NUIC vehicles, while the Act also creates specific automated vehicle incident inspectors whose role it will be to identify the causes of accidents involving automated vehicles.
HIGHER POWERS
Type approval and vehicle examiners’ powers will also be extended to include automated vehicles. For instance, DVSA vehicle examiners will have the authority to impound automated vehicles and prevent them from driving. Future legislation will be introduced to cover aspects such as operator licensing, to allow NUIC vehicles to operate in the freight sector, although the question of who bears responsibility for aspects of operation such as load security (which are currently the driver’s) – should unmanned trucks be allowed on the road – still appears to be unanswered.
The dream of the SAE Level 5 automated vehicle without a driving seat or controls is still a long way off, so further clarity is needed to define what the person in the driving seat can do while the vehicle is in NUIC mode. It is thought likely that the Highway Code will have to be amended to include lists of activities that are permitted or forbidden to the non-driver. Would reading a book or watching a video be acceptable? How about being drunk, or snogging another vehicle occupant, or just catching a quiet 40 winks?
That then, is the legal framework as it currently exists. The question remains as to how truck manufacturers and aftermarket converters will work within it.
THE HOME STRETCH
The British truck industry has been unsurprisingly silent on the issue after the much-heralded government-backed ‘platooning’ trial of 2017-2022 revealed that the autonomously driven truck bringing up the rear of the three-truck platoon used more fuel than the human-driven truck at the front. It was also discovered that the only way the vehicle at the back could keep up at all was if it was unladen.
However, the North American market has been less inhibited. For example, Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) has revealed a Freightliner electric heavy-duty tractor equipped with demonstrator autonomous systems from Torc Robotics. This vehicle has sensors and computer systems with the potential of driving to Level 4 standard, allowing full autonomous driving without inputs from the human driver present in the cab.
DTNA’s goal is to develop this research and engineering project into a modular, scalable platform for different trucking applications and to offer bespoke solutions for customers. The autonomous sensor suite and computer power are packaged to fit the Class 8 eCascadia’s small day-cab. DTNA’s engineering team developed an advanced prototype air-cooling system for the autonomous driving computer stack, which is positioned between the driver and passenger seats.
Customised software provides the autonomous system with control interfaces and feedback on vehicle status. Cameras, lidar and radar sensors are above the windscreen, and the in-house designed sensor bar cover protects from damage and soiling. Four additional 12V batteries provide enough power to ensure uninterrupted operation and increased efficiency and safety.
ROUTE PLANNING
Daimler says the autonomous eCascadia could be used on shorter, repeatable routes – and it is currently testing the autonomous electric semi-truck demonstrator between depots along US highway corridors with the aim of entering the market with production Level 4 autonomous trucks in the US by 2027.
If the German OEM achieves this goal, it may find itself behind Volvo Trucks, which claims to have a Level 4 autonomous Class 8 truck ready for production. Volvo partnered with Aurora to produce the vehicle, based on the new VNL long-haul unit, which the two companies claim was purpose designed and built to incorporate the system – and is billed as Volvo Trucks’ first iteration of its globalised standardised autonomous technology platform, to be used on models across all Volvo brands and in other geographic locations.
Aurora has also partnered with Continental to produce 20 fully driverless trucks. The vehicles are set to be available by the end of 2024 with the deployment of thousands more planned for the next three years. It also has another partnership in place with DAF, Peterbilt and Kenworth parent Paccar. Under the terms of the arrangement, Continental will supply Aurora with sensors, control units, high-performance computers and telematics units. The German company will industrialise and validate Aurora’s system, which includes a fallback system designed to guide the truck in the event of a sensor failure or other serious issue, as well as producing service manuals and setting up a workshop network.
Closer to home, Traton is working with Plus to develop driverless systems capable of handling inter-depot transfers in Germany. Traton’s MAN subsidiary now has a permit to conduct Level 4 autonomous testing on a 10km route on the A9 road between Allerhausen and Fürholzen – and is working towards productionised Level 4 trucks by the end of the decade.
DITCH THE DRIVER
But how attainable is the goal of fully autonomous Level 5 driving with an empty cab? Will driverless tractor pods ply the world’s motorways without rest breaks or driver errors? Not in the foreseeable future, according to Simon Dixon, the founder and CEO of Hatmill, the IT-driven logistics consultancy.
“We are seeing great success with the technology in controlled environments,” he told the Microlise Transport Conference earlier this year. “But artificial intelligence (AI) often misinterprets things. Self-driving technology has significant deficiencies that prevent unsupervised driving from being close to implementation.
“AI doesn’t understand context on the open road,” he continued, pointing out that so-called ‘smart’ cameras could misinterpret things such as life-like advertising graphics on roadside billboards or commercial vehicles as actually being what they portrayed. For example, a large human figure on the back of a truck on the road some distance away could be interpreted as an actual person in the road very close to the camera.
“Full-time self-driving won’t happen in my time,” he asserted.