NEWS & VIEWS
SAFETY INITIATIVE FUNDING ANNOUNCED Round Five of the Australian Government’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative has been announced and will provide 26 projects, aimed at saving lives and reducing road trauma, with a share of the latest $5.9 million to be pledged to the initiative. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development said innovative projects delivering safety benefits to the heavy vehicle industry and other road users would be funded. “Projects being funded this round target key areas such as developing or testing innovative new technologies, mental health support for drivers, educational campaigns and muchneeded training and development,” said Michael McCormack, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. “This includes funding for the recently launched Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds foundation to ramp up their work to improve the mental health of people in the heavy vehicle sector nationwide, from drivers right through to warehouse and distribution centre staff. “Some of the technology-focused projects include testing next-generation
base tyres and trialling new mobile cameras under the National Safety Camera Network initiative to allow real-time monitoring for critical safety concerns like load limit compliance and driver fatigue.” Some of the projects to get funding include one for the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association designed to manage effluent in the livestock supply chain – an Industry Code of Practice Awareness Campaign. The Australian Road Research Board is looking at the ‘Testing of Electronic Stability Technologies on Long Combination Vehicles’. Lindsay Australia will receive funding to develop a risk assessment and prevention toolkit to mitigate and reduce Musculoskeletal Disorder injuries to heavy vehicle road transport drivers. The Queensland Trucking Association are being fund to raise awareness on heavy vehicle driver health and wellbeing and conduct physical health assessments to help improve heavy vehicle driver health and enhance road safety. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has two projects included in the comprehensive list. One is for testing new Mobile Camera Technologies to facilitate
the monitoring and interception of highrisk operators, vehicles and journeys. The other is Sharing the Road with Heavy Vehicles, which is creating a national educational and awareness campaign that targets learner drivers, P-platers and other young drivers. NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto said HVSI provided an opportunity for the regulator, who administers the program, to work with other safety-focused groups towards a common and critical goal. “The HVSI program encourages community, industry and government groups right across the country to collaborate to create workable solutions to make our roads safer,” said Sal Petroccitto, NHVR CEO. “It’s an important demonstration of how working together and harnessing a breadth of knowledge and industry experience can achieve real and lasting results for heavy vehicle safety. “While the HVSI has already delivered some great outcomes, we still have critical work to do to make our roads even safer, which is why I look forward to getting this next round of projects underway to keep driving the future of heavy vehicle safety right across the country.”
AUTONOMOUS INTERNATIONALS ON THEIR WAY After tying up a deal with TuSimple, the strategic partnership between the autonomous truck system developer and Navistar means that there will be autonomous Internationals on their way in the next few years. The plan is to co-develop SAE Level 4 self-driving trucks targeted for production by 2024. The strategic partnership is the result of a successful technical relationship between the companies for more than two years. In addition, Navistar has taken a minority stake in TuSimple. “Autonomous technology is entering our industry and will have a profound impact on our customers’ businesses,” said Persio Lisboa, President and CEO, Navistar. “Navistar’s strategic partnership with TuSimple positions us to be a leader in developing solutions for our customers by leveraging our organisations’ collective expertise to integrate our vehicle design
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DIESEL September-October 2020
and systems integration capabilities with TuSimple’s innovative autonomous technology. This announcement marks a significant milestone in our development journey with TuSimple and we look forward to furthering our relationship in the months to come.” The program between TuSimple and Navistar is planned to enable an integrated engineering solution that will be ready for mass-production using Navistar’s vehicle manufacturing capabilities. At that time customers are expected to be able to purchase the fully autonomous trucks through Navistar’s traditional sales channels in the United States, Canada and Mexico. “TuSimple and Navistar began joint development of pre-production units in 2018 and now we are kicking-off a full go-to-market production program,” said Cheng Lu, President, TuSimple. “We are honoured to be partnered with Navistar. The
investment in TuSimple and the partnership with Navistar marks an important milestone for our company. With the combined expertise of Navistar and TuSimple, we have a clear path to commercialise selfdriving Class 8 trucks at scale.” Last December, TuSimple announced results of a study conducted at the University of California San Diego that show the company’s autonomous driving technology reduced fuel consumption in heavy-duty trucks by 10 per cent when compared to traditional operations. The company operates a fleet of 40 self-driving trucks in the U.S., shipping freight autonomously for companies such as UPS and McLane Company between Arizona and Texas. www.dieselnews.com.au/autonomoustrucks-may-be-closer-than-we-think/ TuSimple plans to demonstrate completely driverless operations in 2021.
