Arkansas recently passed a bill allowing autonomous vehicles to operate in the state. In doing so, Arkansas became the 30th US state to allow autonomous or “self-driving” vehicles on its roads. The new bill also revises the state’s platooning rules to make it easier to use autonomous vehicle technology in a platoon.
One popular area of research in self-driving vehicles is using autonomous vehicle technology to enable truck platooning. Supporters say that platooning can improve fuel efficiency, traffic flow, and highway safety. Major safety concerns, however, must still be addressed – whether platooning is done by human drivers or by computers.
What is Platooning?
“Platooning” occurs when semi trucks drive close together. By following closely behind another truck, a semi can take advantage of aerodynamic changes to reduce drag on the vehicle, improving fuel efficiency. Platooning is also believed to reduce traffic congestion and improve roadway safety.
The benefits of platooning depend on how close the vehicles get to one another. The closer a truck can drive to the truck in front of it, the less drag it experiences and the better its fuel economy gets. Likewise, trucks driving very close together prevent other cars from merging in between them, allowing the trucks to maintain a more constant speed and cutting down on the risk of crashes as cars change lanes with their sight lines obstructed by the trucks.
Safety Risks of Large Truck Platooning
As trucks get closer together, the benefits of platooning increase – but so do the risks. Trucks following closely behind one another have less room to stop in an emergency, increasing the risks of a rear-end crash or even a vehicle pile-up.
The risks created by a too-short stopping distance can be reduced by increasing the distance between platooning trucks. Wider gaps between trucks, however, make it easier for smaller vehicles to cut between platooning trucks – eliminating the safety created by the gap and potentially creating new hazards as small vehicles switch lanes quickly. A larger gap also reduces the benefits of platooning in the first place by increasing drag.
Much research on platooning notes that it is difficult to make platooning safe. It’s even harder to find the perfect “sweet spot” between safety risks and benefits from platooning. Recent interest in autonomous vehicle technology has led to research on whether self-driving trucks could solve these problems.
Will Autonomous Vehicle Technology Solve the Problem?
Arkansas is one of only a handful of states to allow platooning. The state’s original 2017 platooning law requires a driver to be actively engaged in driving each of the trucks in a platoon. It also allows trucks to be within 200 feet of the lead truck.
The newly passed law, however, does away with the requirement that all the trucks have an actively engaged driver. Now, only the lead truck must have a driver in the cab.
The change in the law anticipates a world in which platooning trucks are guided by self-driving vehicle technology, not by a human driver in each cab. The lead truck’s human driver would make decisions like how fast the platoon will go, and the trucks that follow would use self-driving technology to communicate with one another. The trucks would use the information shared between them to maintain speed and distance settings.
Visions of a fully autonomous vehicle future imagine a world where one driver could lead an entire line of trucks, with each following truck using self-driving technology to stay in line. The reality of self-driving technology, however, is far from this futuristic goal.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has conducted several studies of autonomous vehicle technology in platooning. To date, the FHWA has tested “Level 1” automation, which combines sensors and smart technology with a human driver. Currently, the FHWA is studying how other vehicles behave around platooning trucks to learn more about safety issues related to platooning.
Autonomous vehicle technology may help reduce the risks of trucks driving very close together. Yet it may raise other safety concerns. If the truck’s self-driving system misses a hazard or doesn’t read its surroundings correctly, it may cause a crash instead of preventing one – as in the case of Joshua Brown, who died in 2016 when his Tesla’s Autopilot system failed to identify a semi-truck in its path and instead crashed into the truck’s side.
Helping Those Injured in Arkansas Truck Accidents
Self-driving semi trucks are not currently a reality on most roads. Truck accidents are a daily reality in Arkansas and throughout the US, however.
If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, talk to an experienced attorney. A truck accident lawyer can help you understand your options and make an informed choice about your next steps.