http://www.truckingmag.co.uk August 2019 TRUCKING 17
➤Volvo’s John Comer
discussed the present
state of autonomyMaintaining
autonomous systems
Head of product management for Volvo
UK, John Comer, discussed the present
state of autonomy – essentially seeing,
steering and stopping. Collision
mitigation was the name of the game,
with lane departure warning, adaptive
cruise control and advanced emergency
braking all now standard equipment.
But it was important to understand
their limitations.
Volvo is now mounting side cameras
which sound the horn if the driver is
turning and the camera has identified an
object in his blindspot, and front-
mounted cameras assist the distance
sensors which have limited lateral range.
A heads-up display on the windscreen
adds to driver information – but like the
front camera, usually mounted inside
the radiator panel, it is essential to keep
this device clean and unobstructed. A
replacement windscreen means the
camera must be recalibrated. As a guard
against over-reliance, a cab warning will
inform the driver if the sensors are
switched off or partially disabled.
Mr Comer also showed instances of
fully autonomous truck operations: a
6 km circuit in a quarry in Norway had
6x4 tippers carrying spoil from
diggers to the crusher, an operation
which involved tight turns and
reversing. The truck’s movements are
entirely controlled by operatives
outside using hand-helds. As
this is experimental, a
driver is present in the
cab, but normally he
does not intervene.
A second trial is
taking place with
ferry operator DFDS,
where Volvo VERA tugs (looking rather
like aircraft tugs) are working at a large
container port. Again these are
controlled from hand-held devices. “This
is not about replacing the driver,” Comer
emphasised. “He is still in charge. He
will understand the autonomous
systems and remains responsible for
driving and safety.”Making the most of
technology
Steve Vincent from Schmitz Cargobull
reminded delegates not to overlook the
role of trailers. By 2020, trailers will be
totally ‘online’ with axle load and
brake pad wear measuring, remote
cargo area locking and tractor unit
recognition all transmitted by WIFI as
well as GPS. Experiments are taking
place to use energy from the axles,
both momentum and regenerative
braking, to run trailer systems and
even supply power to the tractor.
Roger Thorpe from axle-builder BPW
foresaw intelligent running gear which
offered continuous performance
monitoring (and an end to MoT brake
failures). Electronic brake performance
monitoring systems rely on accumulated
data and their accuracy increases with
use. The DVSA has already recognised
the utility of EBPMS and issued a
booklet to show how to employ the data
for MoT presentation.
Similarly, Steve Howat from
Continental emphasised the
importance of intelligent
tyres: the biggest cause
of motorway incidents
was HGV tyre
blow-out. Moreover,
tyre maintenance
was still very labourintensive. The challenge was to get the
tyres to communicate with ABS systems:
by 2020 it should be possible to have
sensors in the tyres which will monitor
condition and flag up deflation and
damage with could cause deflation.
Part of a connected system, tyre
monitoring could be part of telemetry
feedback which would be the real
breakthrough. Concrete supplier Cemex
has been experimenting with sensors
and has largely eliminated tyre incidents
on its mixers.Maintaining electric
vehicles
Tevva at a maximum GVW of 14 tonnes
just creeps into the HGV field, but the
service implications of all-electric are
still interesting. Richard Lidstone-Scott
explained high-voltage electrical items
are not repaired on site or at the
roadside; for the 100 or so Tevvas so far
in use, a service vehicle delivers a
replacement module, fits it if possible
at the customer’s premises and takes
away the faulty item for repair. The
customer is invoiced only if his vehicle
is out of warranty.
Part of the raison d’être for electric
trucks is lower downtime than the
equivalent diesel. A battery module takes
an hour to replace, a steering pack two. A
range-extended EV will have a donkey
engine to top-up batteries, but this is aBy 2020, trailers will
be totally ‘online’ with
axle load and brake pad
wear measuring, remote
locking and more.