Will Self-Driving Vehicles Take Off?

Self-driving vehicles can provide a wide range of benefits to the logistics sector including improved road safety, greater fuel efficiency and reduced environmental impact, according to a DHL report.

However, as the trend report explains, autonomous technologies still have some way to go before reaching full maturity. Considerable catching up is also required regarding regulations, public acceptance and issues of liability.

Despite these barriers, some compelling use cases have already emerged, indicating that many organizations are willing to develop and deploy self-driving technologies, the report says.

For public highways and urban streets, the Self-Driving Vehicles in Logistics trend report anticipates:

• In the near future, enhancements to existing driver-assistance functions.
• Next, the introduction of autonomous driving in specific situations such as on congested highways.
• Further into the future, fully autonomous truck convoys on highways, 24/7.

As a first step in the self-driving journey, the trend report contains various best-practice applications from different industries and also examines concrete use cases of self-driving vehicles across the entire logistics value chain. Applications for self-driving vehicles that are discussed in the report include:

• Autonomous transport and assisted picking in warehouses
• Autonomous outdoor logistics like yard, harbor and airport operations
• Assisted highway trucking and convoying in line-haul transportation
• Last-mile delivery

Earlier this year DHL expanded its portfolio of carbon reporting services by adopting protocols and adding a web portal.