Nimos
Well-Known Member
"Today, because the system is not fully ready, we have a safety driver and a safety engineer on board at all times when we're testing, but we drove in full autonomy: the driver wasn't touching the wheel," said Cheng Lu, TuSimple's president and CEO.
The journey was completed in 14 hours versus the usual 24 with a human driver, mostly because a truck doesn't need to sleep. "In the US, a driver can only work 11 hours a day. We simply had a handoff when our first pair of drivers had to stop because they reached their 11 hours of operation," said Lu. That, of course, negates the advantage of an autonomous system, so the idea is that once TuSimple's trucks hit the market, there will be no need to have anyone onboard.
The technology will add about $50,000 to the cost of a truck, making the final price roughly $200,000. According to Lu, that's still cheaper than paying for a human driver.
"If you take $50,000 and divide it by 1 million miles, the average lifespan of a truck, that means you're adding five cents per mile. But you're saving the cost of a human driver, which based on average US wages is about $80,000 to $120,000 per year -- or 80 cents to $1.20 per mile. Today, the direct labor cost is about 50% of the cost of operating a truck," he said.
That doesn't mean driverless trucks will take away jobs, according to Lu. By focusing on the "middle mile," rather than on the pickup and delivery of the goods, TuSimple believes it can create new freight capacity without creating new demand for drivers, while at the same time protecting existing jobs. "A UPS driver is dropping off 200 packages a day -- that's not what autonomy is meant for. We believe that every driver will be able to retire as a driver, even if they enter the workforce today," said Lu.
"Take Phoenix to El Paso: that's a six-hour drive. A person cannot make the round trip, because it's more than 11 hours. But the truck can go back and forth all day, the most mundane job that drivers don't want to do. That means you free up that human driver to do the first and the last mile (pickup and delivery).They get to work a full day, which is a more efficient use of their time, and they get to go home at night to their family," said Lu.
My question is, how long will it take for someone to solve the last step, either by simply making drop off points where people go collect their package or the technology evolves further and can handle the last step as well?
The journey was completed in 14 hours versus the usual 24 with a human driver, mostly because a truck doesn't need to sleep. "In the US, a driver can only work 11 hours a day. We simply had a handoff when our first pair of drivers had to stop because they reached their 11 hours of operation," said Lu. That, of course, negates the advantage of an autonomous system, so the idea is that once TuSimple's trucks hit the market, there will be no need to have anyone onboard.
The technology will add about $50,000 to the cost of a truck, making the final price roughly $200,000. According to Lu, that's still cheaper than paying for a human driver.
"If you take $50,000 and divide it by 1 million miles, the average lifespan of a truck, that means you're adding five cents per mile. But you're saving the cost of a human driver, which based on average US wages is about $80,000 to $120,000 per year -- or 80 cents to $1.20 per mile. Today, the direct labor cost is about 50% of the cost of operating a truck," he said.
That doesn't mean driverless trucks will take away jobs, according to Lu. By focusing on the "middle mile," rather than on the pickup and delivery of the goods, TuSimple believes it can create new freight capacity without creating new demand for drivers, while at the same time protecting existing jobs. "A UPS driver is dropping off 200 packages a day -- that's not what autonomy is meant for. We believe that every driver will be able to retire as a driver, even if they enter the workforce today," said Lu.
"Take Phoenix to El Paso: that's a six-hour drive. A person cannot make the round trip, because it's more than 11 hours. But the truck can go back and forth all day, the most mundane job that drivers don't want to do. That means you free up that human driver to do the first and the last mile (pickup and delivery).They get to work a full day, which is a more efficient use of their time, and they get to go home at night to their family," said Lu.
My question is, how long will it take for someone to solve the last step, either by simply making drop off points where people go collect their package or the technology evolves further and can handle the last step as well?
