Logistics giant DHL has big plans for its autonomous future

BI Intelligence

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DHL’s chief commercial officer, Bill Meahl, penned a company blog post this week detailing how the world’s largest logistics provider plans to incorporate self-driving technology into its global operations.

In the post, Meahl outlined several self-driving initiatives that the company already has underway:

• The logistics giant plans to test self-driving vehicles for last-mile delivery next year, with autonomous software and chips from Nvidia and sensors from auto parts supplier supplier ZF.
• The company also has an ongoing research test it’s conducting in partnership with the UK government involving platooning technology for semi-trucks, which allows semi-autonomous trucks to follow each other in a closely packed convoy to create a slipstream and improve fuel efficiency.
• DHL also recently announced that it has pre-ordered 10 of Tesla’s newly unveiled semi-trucks, which also will include platooning technology.

Meahl said the company doesn’t see autonomous technology replacing its drivers anytime soon, but is laying the groundwork for integrating semi-autonomous systems that can increase driver productivity while reducing fuel costs. He cited significant regulatory and technological barriers that mean it will be a while before truck drivers are replaced by autonomous systems.

But his comments reinforce the likelihood that semi-autonomous and platooning systems will be quickly adopted by truck operators because of their benefits to the bottom line. In a recent report, BI Intelligence laid out the three phases of adoption of autonomous systems in the trucking industry, starting with platooning systems that are expected to come to market in the next year. Around 2025, the second phase will introduce advanced driver assist systems that can take over certain driving functions, but won’t fully replace the driver, allowing trucks to spend more hours on the road while staying in compliance with the industry’s labor regulations. The final stage of fully driverless trucks likely won’t come to fruition until after 2040.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has written a detailed report on autonomous trucking that:

• Analyzes the development of autonomous trucking technology.
• Explains the waves in which advanced and autonomous technologies will start to impact the trucking industry, providing detailed explanations of how a company can take advantage of the disruptive technology transforming logistics at each stage.
• Profiles the efforts of the companies that are at the forefront of new technology in trucking, looking at what they're working on and when their efforts could start to impact the market.

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