Driverless HGVs to be trialled in the UK
Driverless Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) platoons will be trialled on UK roads this year. The Times and the BBC have reported that the trials will take place on the M6 motorway in Cumbria later this year. The “platoons” – as the name suggests – will use technology that will allow the vehicles to move in a group of ten or more.
The UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) has confirmed that tests will be happening, although it has not specified any dates.
A DfT spokesperson was quoted by the BBC as saying: “New technology has the potential to bring major improvements to journeys and the UK is in a unique position to lead the way for the testing of connected and driverless vehicles.
“We are planning trials of HGV platoons – which enable vehicles to move in a group so they use less fuel – and will be in a position to say more in due course.”
The driverless HGVs will have radar and camera systems to detect – and avoid – other vehicles. There will also be a human driver on board at all times who can take control, if necessary.
A driverless lorry developed by Daimler has already been tested on a public road in Germany in October.
Meanwhile, the Borough of Greenwich in London and the government-backed Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) are organising the Greenwich Automated Transport Environment (GATEway) project this year. Among other things, the GATEway project will include tests in which autonomous vans may be used to “move parcels between either warehouses and shops or stores and homes in south east London”.
