Jesus Wept - Now We Are To Have H G V Platoons ...

[sunny-dave]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35737104

I honestly cannot believe that anyone with even a few brain cells still working thinks that this is a good/feasible idea ... are they all just completely insane??

[EDDIE51]

Sorry not driverless but 1 driver for up to 30 trailers ! There are proposals to try driverless road trains though.

[THEMOTLEY1]

Eddie @1058, nice piccie, but are they driverless, have you read the link in the OP?

[THEMOTLEY1]

Crossed posts, ok so you realise your mistake.

[mushroom25]

how long would it take a platoon of driverless trucks travelling at 56mph to overtake a driven truck travelling at 55mph?

[Svejk]

Presumably that sort of thing wouldn't happen, as it does now.

[mrblear]

How do the lorries get to the motorway and what happens when they leave?

[whiskeryron]

I think that it is a proven fact that road traffic accidents are usually caused by human error, so I can see merit in the theory of driver-less vehicles providing all things are taken into consideration.

[bhg481]

I suspect a platoon of driverless trucks would have the intelligence to stay behind the driven truck, so the problem wouldn't arise. Now the time taken for a driven truck to overtake a platoon of trucks....it would happen, you work it out.

[mushroom25]

this would probably require a network of purpose built distribution depots to be built. it would probably also allow the government to insist that the driverless vehicles are upgrade to 80T.

[Svejk]

mrblear// How do the lorries get to the motorway and what happens when they leave?//

Another lorry, full of drivers?

[TWR]

Another idiotic non workable sheer waste of PUBLIC MONEY as usual, Why? what do you think? should the load become insecure will it slow down to recover the load as a drive can do? If the Unti / Trailer has a blow out, will it pull over and change the wheel? can the Unit / trailer avoid road debris as a driver can do? be controled in Ice / Snow / Fog / weather conditions as a driver would do? you may think my answers are Negative, I have been in road situations that my experience got me out of, Driver less HGVs my rse, did they not say the same thing about planes? can you remember the plane that landed on the Hudson River? i wonder if a Pilot less plane would have done that? I'm all for reducing HGVs off the road by using the rail, but can the rail network get tyhe load there on time? think about it.

[weecalf]

It's the driverless bit that is annoying most .Look at it like this we have been putting up with funny less comedians for ages now and no one has noticed .the lorries will be guided by computers or summit like that .Pity we didn't think of barring talent seeking television shows before we were plagued with x and bgt .

[bhg481]

This is a classic example of an accident that would NOT occur with a driverless lorry.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Question1478609.html

Sensors in all directions would have prevented the lorry from moving in when it was alongside another vehicle and, most likely, stopped it getting in that situation in the first place because of driver impatience/incompetence.

[ToraToraTora]

raving.

[TWR]

Bhj, I have just relied to Peas post but to your post, I have many many times been on the Motorways with HGVs 7 the number of times I've seen cars staying in the blind side of a Drivers vision " Just below the drivers door" if you look at this from a HGVs drivers seat all he / she can see looking in their mirrors is a clear lane, the next thing "BANG" i can not understand when overtaking a HGV why some cars just dawdle instead of getting out of the way, I am not sticking up for the HGV Driver in case you think I am.

[douglas9401]

Multi chambered goods vehicles transporting stuff to a central point for sorting and onward travel in smaller vehicles?
Talk about re-inventing the wheel.

[bhg481]

I agree with you entirely TWR. It's a very silly thing to sit alongside ANY vehicle; if you're in a diffferent lane you're supposed to be overtaking. The point I was making is that a driverless lorry, due to it having many more sensors than a driver-driven vehicle, would not have attempted to move in. The same argument applies to ALL vehicles, not just lorries, but this thread is about lorries.

[TWR]

It's done now Doug, but it's the extra cost + time for a delivery to get from A to B.

[Svejk]

Yes, Tw, but if we got rid of all the, possibly brandy hung-over, drivers, those things wouldn't happen.
A compulorry could detect a housefly approaching. You guys can't see cars. (and you just said that, before you start shouting at me)

[TWR]

I've driven the things for 40years + Bhj, nothing can match the person sitting behind the wheel.