At the Council of Supply Chain Annual Professionals yearly conference in September at Atlanta, Missy Cummings of Duke spoke the second day of the conference about Artificial Intelligence and specifically about driverless cars and trucks. She said the technology is not there yet. Computers have trouble handling the contextual thinking humans have and there are no security procedures to stop GPS hacking. Though she did report that so-called truck platooning, where on human truck leads several driverless trucks on the highway is nearing being doable. This information as reported by Supply Chain Digest.
The innovators come in with the next great idea and they want to sell it and it is necessary for them to do this to get the finances to have a chance to do something special. Practitioners of the supply chain need to balance the potential benefits versus the costs, not all of which are known. So it is important not to go over board with the hype. Hype such as driverless vehicles will replace all truck drivers and cars by next Tuesday or a week from Wednesday at the latest. But certainly for distance moves where platooning trucks can be arranged and there are potential savings, be alert for these. Choose your spots, as there are limited resources. So it worth it for the supply chain/logistics practitioner to be patient.