In the growing man versus machine debate, C.R. England (CCJ Top 250, No. 29) believes that people will out-perform autonomous trucks when it comes to fuel economy.
However, autonomous vehicle (AV) technology does offer enough promising benefits like improved safety, faster delivery times and driver relief, which led the Utah-based carrier to recently announce AV pilots with Kodiak Robotics and Torc Robotics.
But better fuel economy? While C.R. England’s vice president of equipment and fuel Ron Hall does see AV tech beating out some of its drivers in terms of employing better tactics to lessen fuel consumption, he’s not convinced that artificial intelligence will completely emerge victorious.
Hall likens fuel economy benefits from truck autonomy to their experience with automated transmissions.
“We are a very forward-thinking fleet when it comes to fuel economy,” Hall said. “We have a ton of investments in aero devices. We invest in automated transmissions. There are a number of factors that make it important to us not only for cost management, but also for sustainability. What we saw with automated transmissions is that the technology doesn't beat the best driver, but it brings the fleet average much closer to the best driver's fuel-economy performance, and we think autonomy will do the same thing.”
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Hall sees AV technology progressively improving and leading to a greater fleet average of fuel economy along the way.
