The Future of 5G Will Make Trucking Autonomous

Assuming you are staying tuned with some of the newest technological advances, then you most likely have heard of the push to 5th Generation wireless internet access which is more commonly known as 5G. The majority of the newest popular smartphones and tablets have 5G capability built right in which allows them to reach download speeds of up to 10 gigabytes a second. To put this into perspective, this means you can go from downloading a movie that would normally take ten minutes or longer to download using Wi-Fi or 4G LTE, to downloading it in a matter of seconds when using 5G.

Source: https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/5g-trials-to-start-in-jan-mar-quarter-this-fiscal-dot-official/72852018

All of this being said, there is a lot more to 5G innovation than downloading movies. These extremely fast internet speeds lead to many other innovations such as autonomous driving. Specifically, I am going to discuss the autonomous driving of semi-trucks! There are many benefits to having semi-trucks drive autonomously. These benefits include both safety and efficiency as well as others. In the United States alone, almost 4,900 fatal crashes in the year 2018 involved large trucks. Autonomous driving with 5G can help bring down this number significantly. 5G allows massive amounts of data to be transferred almost instantaneously, thus allowing the truck to quickly react when a collision is about to occur. Whether the truck is about to hit an animal darting across the road, the truck is in a jam, or the truck is about to jackknife, with 5G, the truck can respond quickly to fix the scenario. Combining 5G with the use of other advanced technologies such as cameras and sensors, the truck can respond to a dangerous situation much more quickly than a human can.

While safety is of the utmost importance, efficiency is also a huge factor when it comes to delivering goods across the world. With 5G and autonomous driving, these trucks will be able to take goods all over the place without a driver. There are many perks to this. Just to list a few, one perk is that a truck driver will not be stuck in a truck for hours. Another perk is that goods do not have to remain in one location while drivers rest. Finally, these self-driving trucks are fully capable of becoming a fleet. Think of a fleet as a group of birds forming a triangle while they fly across the sky (to reduce the drag coefficient). While these trucks will not be traveling in a triangle, they can travel together in a line. Thus, more goods can be delivered in less time, costing less money, and using less energy.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017-08-25-uk-platooning-trials.html

Even though there is much more that can be said about autonomous driving and 5G, this article is already quite lengthy and filled with plenty of information so let’s talk about one last thing. That, of course, is how EasyCargo ties into this. While autonomous trucking is not here, it is in the foreseeable future. However, you can get started saving time and money now by using EasyCargo! EasyCargo is a useful tool when loading up these trucks because it will utilize the most space within the trailer. Not only will money be saved here, but even more will be saved when the truck is loaded in less time. You can sign up for a 10-day free trial with all of the features and best of all, with no commitment so be sure to check EasyCargo out! Thank you for reading and be sure to be on the lookout for the next blog post!