Autonomous Vehicle Technology In Supply Chain Management

Introduction

This Assignment will explain the Autonomous vehicle technology in the supply chain and also critically analyze the benefit of the same in the overall productivity of the Logistics service providers. This will also review the issue faced in the industry in applying it as well other supply chain members who have an impact on the implementation of the suggested technology. Consolidating the complete advantages and disadvantages for Autonomous vehicle in the industry with further investigation of applying it into the future for the development and implementation. It is predicted that by 2030 all the human-operated vehicle will be shifted to an independent mobility vehicle which will reduce the driving stress, less CO2 emission and major advantages to avoid the accidents in the roads. As it’s stated “Labor accounts for 75% of the cost of transporting shipments by truck, so adopters can begin to realize those savings. Beyond that, while trucks are prohibited from driving more than 11 hours per day without taking an eight hours break, a driverless truck can drive for the entire day”.

As per the Gartner hype cycle in emerging technologies, the tabbed autonomous vehicle technology is expected to be essentially one of the fast developing in the coming 10 years for the industries to implement so as to increase their productivity, minimize the cost and satisfy the end users. Most of the prediction is made by people in the industry were and which they rely on the current automation. As seen in the present scenario all the vehicles can operate within the limited setting such as the radar, sensors which are not sufficient enough to guarantee your consumer to make it possible to use in the road situation. Many traffic problems can occur due to this as they need to be made in a separate and under surveillance until it becomes completely processed as most of the traffic accidents is being done by human driving while at the same time the autonomous vehicle insurance boosts up than the human driving vehicle. This report will justify the main role of the autonomous technology for logistics in the supply chain where they can utilize the same to increase their efficiency for the output which reflects there end user as well so the depletion of the environmental cause and effects in overall.

Autonomous Vehicle definition

The Autonomous vehicle is defined as a machine which can operate without the help of human operation as it works totally upon the technology-oriented features inbuilt. As said by Dave Waters “Self-driving vehicles, automatically choosing the most efficient route. Artificial intelligence will dramatically improve logistics”. This particular technology is rapidly growing in the industry to facilitate the shortage of skilled divers as well reduce the emission of the CO2 to our environment.

Levels of Autonomous vehicle

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has classified the level of automation in vehicles as below:

1. Level 0: The car will be not automated but the complete control function will be driven by the Human driver. For Instance: if on traveling on the road and suddenly you find the car is going to slide on the ice ways so it will be controlled by a human to make sure the safety function is to be applied.
2. Level 1: At this level, the vehicle can assist the driver with one function that is Flexible cruise control in which the vehicle will react when another car is in close front of you to make sure an extra brake is applied with the help of radars.
3. Level 2: Many luxury automakers have already been put into effect this type of technology in which the vehicle will perform the speed and control the steering concurrently allowing to perform without driver interaction. Accordingly, the due to partial automation the driver must be ready to control the vehicle in case of most critical safety function required: For instance: American luxury car maker Cadillac CT6 qualifies for level 2 automation.
4. Level 3: The leap of the level 2 to level 3 is that in level 3 the vehicle controls all the monitoring of the environment using the sensors inbuilt. Basically, the driver takes a hand used here when the vehicle is not able to control or take over the situation in sudden cases like loss of navigation. For Instance: Tesla car well known for its electric cars emit this level of mechanization.
5. Level 4: This particular computerization mention’s us that the assist of a human driver is required only when the vehicle is moving to blend onto a highway from a service byway or in the situation of heavy gridlock. Also, the vehicle apprises to the surroundings are safe to act the execution.
6. Level 5: The complete overlook of the vehicle which involves from start to stop takes place without the help of a human driver no matter what the pathway and substantial setting is.

Advantages of Autonomous Vehicle

1. Less stress, More Production, and flexibility: The self-driving cars can be free for the human beings to rest while traveling to their workplaces or rather be a small office so that they can work on the travel which saves us time and brings out more productivity. Moreover, self-driven vehicle proves to be more flexible than the human-driven car as it makes driving more comfortable and creates fewer traffic jams within the cities as well one of the best advantages is that the handicapped or disabled people can also use this vehicle which for any reason is good. Making such traveler benefit to their daily life which makes them accessible for occupation and literacy.
2. Higher Efficiency and lower environmental impact: The various level of the mechanized vehicle gives out less emission to the environment due to the reason there is no over acceleration and deceleration which improves 4 to 10 % of the fuel economy. This specific technology even can be used by the manufacturer to make a lightweight vehicle so as again the fuel economy will be reduced. At the full automation level, these type of vehicle has the ability to re-fill its own fuel and come back to the designated location which again makes the life easier and simpler for the consumers. According to a study by the University of California, Davis, if automated vehicles are electrified and shared, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by as much as 80 percent by 2050 sustainable America.

Disadvantages of Autonomous Vehicle

As in the going forward the use of Automated Vehicle increases which boost people to use the same and make them move away from the city to suburban areas as the travel time will be shorter. So in this case, as the travel time is increasing which will cause more of impure wind, greenhouse gas discharge. This weak side can be reversed by running the vehicle with electricity or compound vehicle

Role of the Autonomous vehicle in the supply chain

As said by Morgan Stanley “The potential savings to the US freight transport industry at $168 billion annually from improved fuel consumption, reduced labor cost, Improve productivity and reduced accidents”. The most expected firm which is going to benefit the supply chain industry is the Logistics service providers as they are looking forward to the “Truck Platooning” as in it can totally reduce the cost of the whole trip from pick up to the delivery destination due to the reason that a single Qualified driver can be used to control the vehicle combined with technology. Many trails have been taken place such in one of the commercial heavy manufacture Scania is working where 4 platoon truck will carry containers to a port terminal of about 10Km on the city road. The driver, in the beginning, will set the direction in navigation and set the cruise of speed in the 1st truck and the rest of them will work autonomously. ” Mercedes Benz semi-automatic truck prototype is scheduled to release in 2025”.