This is very exciting. It feels momentous. It means improvements in safety, fuel economy, faster freight and less driver fatigue. What’s not to like?

I don’t see FedEx, Amazon or Tesla as part of the network. I hope they don’t come up with rival standards that would make interoperability a mess.

Automated delivery and trucking will come. It is just a matter of time before the safety and technical issues are fully ironed out. This will be a major breakthrough in supply chains and will reshape the economics of fulfillment for retailers – something that has been a weak point in the growth of online.

The limitations of automated trucking are difficult to fully comprehend. We need to remember what this must mean to succeed. First, it’s a lot like rail shipping because it must be point to point — DC to DC. Even then, AI is not up to the task yet — even if the DC is barely off the interstate highway. The long tail problems with vision and decision systems are not solved and don’t appear to have a solution coming soon. Isolating to interstate highways and little else helps control the long tail, but doesn’t eliminate it. Second, NO. Issues around safety and scaling have not been solved. Fundamentally, vision systems are not able to “comprehend” what they see — so they only work in a narrow range. That said, there are probably limited routes where this could be started on interstates with few problems and with remote drivers able to take over. But the hype far outweighs the reality. We need to ponder whether trucking has become a focus because the digerati discovered that self-driving… Read more »

Driving on a highway surrounded by giant trucks is scary enough, but giant trucks without drivers? Shiver.

TuSimple will have to prove its far-reaching claims. If not them, others will eventually prove the model. The impact on retailers will be positive for most/all of the reasons claimed, with only refueling limiting continuous product transport between warehouse and destination. Whether that translates into cost savings is dependent upon how transport companies position themselves, speed, cost savings, or both.

Of course, this says nothing about displaced truck drivers and probably warehouse workers too. As the automation economy ramps-up, society is going to have to address the problem, else the faster to market goods will have a shrinking set of consumers to buy them. Not to mention social unrest which may keep shoppers away from stores.

All the issues around safety and scaling have not yet been solved. But they will be. This is the future. My concern is the same as Suresh’s. Will we mess it all up by coming up with rival standard? Furthermore, I am not confident that the best standard will be the one adopted in the U.S.

Will this be important to the future success of retailing? It will be no more or less important than it is to the future of all transportation. It is about transportation, not about retail. If retailers get concerned about this, they are taking their eye off the ball.

The long awaited automation of transport is just about here. This will be a boost to retailing and delivery mechanisms for long distance hauling – but it won’t solve the last-mile delivery issues that continue to be the sticking point for retailers. What this means is faster delivery times for customers, but not by much. The real value comes as lower costs to the retailer. It is too early to tell long term impact, but there is lots of promise.

Safety remains to be seen and insurance companies are just waiting to build a new line of business. Expansion and scaling also remains to be seen.

Potentially, with an emphasis on potentially, automated trucking could, with an emphasis on could, be a game changer, but the technology just isn’t there quite yet. There are any number of problems from what would a truck do in the event it was forced to take an alternative route? I have this problem today with human drivers who can’t find my address because, for some unknown reason, it doesn’t appear on Google Maps. Also the trucks would be rational, but they would be on the road with drivers who aren’t. So, no, the issues around safety and scaling have definitely not been addressed.

As a resident of Tucson, where TuSimple is based, I’ve been looking over my shoulder for prototype robo-trucks every time I get on the freeway. (I can’t help it. Stephen King’s “Maximum Overdrive” keeps replaying in my head.)

If self-driving cars seem scary, self-driving 18-wheelers are downright terrifying. So much mass and nobody in the front seat who values their own life.

But this tech has potential to actually make long-haul transport safer — perfect attention, no speeding, no driver fatigue, safer overnight trips. As the data accumulates, TuSimple and its rivals will surely try to prove an overall safety record that is better than human drivers.

Will they succeed? It will only take one spectacular accident to set the program back years. But I think acceptance is likely and consumer product distribution will ultimately benefit.