- 21 July 2012
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The Biggest Hurdle For Driverless Car Logistics In Many (If Not Most) Countries
21 July 2012 Posted By matthewn
Quick thoughts…
If a truck loaded up with valuable goods is travelling without any humans to stop it, what’s going to stop people from taking that cargo?
Surveillance doesn’t help because balaclavas are a simple counter-measure.
Heavily fortified trucks could impede the road pirates while distress signals are sent.
Electrification – the internal shell of the trucks could be heavily electrified, making it highly difficult for the pirates to get to the goods.
Convoys – A human could potentially travel with massive convoys of, say, 50 vehicles as a protective measure.
Tear Gas/Pepper Spray could be deployed if threats are sensed.
Self Destruct could even be included as a final counter-measure to make pirate raids futile.
Of all the above solutions, I think a heavy lockdown in combination with guarded convoys would be the solution that is reached. What do you think?
For smaller vehicles performing part of a final-mile solution, there would need to still be quite strong protection but without humans required.
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4 Responses to “The Biggest Hurdle For Driverless Car Logistics In Many (If Not Most) Countries”
I think the security of piloted vehicles will be of paramount concern in most countries, but let’s take a (imagined) scenario and see what countermeasures we could deploy to prevent piracy and if there is any difference from today:
A transport pilot car contains food, where food is scarce. Not Mad Max, but normal societal controls. The vehicle is going from a distribution center to deliver to a residential setting. The vehicles are secured by robust physical security in the form of locks and the vehicles are constructed of materials which are not easily opened without power tools. This is similar to current protocols but with human drivers.
Now imagine pirates lay down on a remote road. The vehicles are forced to stop.
In this scenario, if the pirates have tools, they will take the contents of the transport regardless if there is human intervention. The only tool they need currently is a gun to get the driver out.
The same is true whether the cargo is food or diamonds. In the future, as in the present, physical security in it’s many variety of forms which you describe, will continue.
The main changes we see from the present is that vehicles that have low value content will no longer require the driver as EITHER conductor or for security.
In the example you give, I see Piloted cars as adding an additional layer since the “real owner” of the cargo can set the route and monitor the cargo in real-time.
A note on a program that I’ve seen elsewhere: Transport may broadcast to local law enforcement the proposed route which allows police to reallocate resources to areas of greatest vulnerability and where, if an attack comes) response might be accelerated with a prefetch for police service. Head-the-line protocol and immediate response. Then the time between initial contact with pirates and assistance is greatly reduced. In another program, imagine a system of piloted police cars where the officer is guided by a crime algorithm which includes arrests, last know addresses of every parolee, felon and criminal hotspot. Manual use of the car is strongly discouraged. If a dozen pilot trucks were robbed in a particular area or on a route, a program can outguess all but the most sophisticated scams.
The downside is that the system might give thieves a potential list of targets when (eventually) there is data leakage to interested third parties. I can see work-arounds but the problems will get stranger.
@ThomLandon ok.
Just as an aside, I think you may be under-estimating the effect that human presence would have on potential thieves.
Human presence doesn’t just add another level of uncertainty… It’s just easier to live with yourself the next day if you are stealing from an impersonal steel box. Look at behavioral studies where if you stick a set of eyes above the chocolate box at work, theft drops off dramatically.
@MatthewNewton
You are, of course, completely correct. A human driver is more of an obstacle for thieves, since there is a self-selection of people that will only steal what is not nailed down from someone willing to put another’s life at risk. The first group is much larger (and opportunistic) than the latter.
However, the security that will develop around tracking and alerting will grow robustly with the elimination of that (human) security. This will not prevent attacks but will limit how much time and the opportunities for crime.
Predictive policing software is getting better; perhaps, someday, corporate fleet management might be included in an upgrade.