The Necessity of Introducing Autonomous Trucks in Logistics 4.0
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Even though the authors provide detailed information about autonomous truck platooning and describe which problems could be faced by utilizing them, they do not present a methodology for adopting them nor relevant experiments to prove their efficiency. The submitted paper is at a preliminary stage and further research steps are required. A proposed methodology and numerical results are needed to enhance their research and quantify your statements (e.g. an economic analysis, a simulation process, experiments, numerical results etc.).
Author Response
Dear, Reviewer :
Thank you for reviewing this manuscript. Based on the opinions of the reviewer, this article can be developed to a higher level. Various comments mentioned by the reviewer have been revised as follows.
First, I received your opinion on the "methodological approach", but the methodology in this study is literature research. Therefore, we did not use empirical analysis data because it is not an engineering study that conducts empirical analysis, but a legal analysis using secondary data. Instead, we analyzed the regulations of Korea and the United States, and studied the cases of the United States. And we presented the necessary contents for the introduction of autonomous driving in Korea. In the future, we will add content on empirical analysis in the study so that quantified data can be presented.
Second, according to the opinion that the focus should be properly defined, the scope of this article was limited to Korea and the United States. because the U.S. has advanced autonomous driving technology and regulations, but Korea is still insufficient. Since the manuscript describes only the Korean regulations, the autonomous driving regulations of the United States are added and summarized as follows(159-180) :
When discussing legal regulations on self-driving, it is essential to mention the United States. Legal problems related to self-driving cars in the U.S. began in August 2011 when Google crashed into a self-driving car. In this case, the accident occurred after changing from a person's driving mode to a Jowl driving mode, raising the need for legal regulation.
In the case of the U.S., the federal and state are simultaneously trying to legislate for self-driving cars, and the legislation is generally centered on the state, and the federal NHTSA is presenting a comprehensive framework.
In the United States, the first federal law on self-driving vehicles, the Safely Enforcing Lives Future Deployment and Researchin Vehicle Evolution Act, was introduced on July 27, 2017, and was first enacted at the federal level in September 2017.
Already before federal legislation, state-by-state legislation on self-driving car permission has already been introduced by a total of 33 states, including six in 2012, nine in 2013, 12 in 2014, 16 in 2015, 20 in 2016, and 2017.From Nevada to California, Florida, DC, Michigan, Nostakoda, Tennessee and Utah, the law stipulates the concept of self-driving cars and obligations to record operational data, etc. Although slightly different from state to state, it is closely structured and includes definitions of the relevant concepts of self-driving cars, test driving requirements for self-driving cars, registration requirements, automakers' responsibilities, and regulatory obligations.
Third, according to the mention providing a more detailed description of the tests performed in the United States, we add four specific tests in chronological order to the under-explained US autonomous truck case.
There are several examples of testing and usage of autonomous trucks globally. For example, in Korea, platooning performed has been performed: when the driver of the following truck approaches the leading vehicle, it switches to platooning mode. Thereafter, the following truck maintains a distance of at least 16.7m, with real-time control based on the acceleration and deceleration of the car in front. The driver of the lead truck can reduce driving fatigue through semi-autonomous driving. Meanwhile, the driver of the following truck can let go of the steering wheel, thereby being completely free from driving. It is also possible to deal with unforeseen incidents such as another vehicle cutting in between the trucks. If another vehicle cuts in between platooning trucks, the following truck automatically keeps a sufficient distance (at least 25m) from that vehicle. The test run in Korea successfully implemented the technology for the following truck to operate sudden braking when the leading truck makes a sudden stop or brake in an unexpected situation.
The United States had its first cargo transport by an autonomous truck on October 25, 2016 [24]. The world's first commercial self-driving delivery was successful, traveling 120 miles from Colorado in two hours. The track could drive without the assistance of the driver on the highway, validate the traffic conditions, choose acceleration and speed, and keep the lane.
In June 2019, USPS also completed a trial run of self-driving trucks that can transport mail in cooperation with Tuisimple. USPS tested self-driving trucks while moving from Dallas, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona, on a 1,000-mile road, but the main goal of this test was to verify safety.
Another example is the successful trans-East-West transportation of the U.S. continent in December 2019 with Level 4 self-driving trucks. The self-driving truck reached Pennsylvania from California, and as a Level 4 self-driving truck, refrigerated containers full of fresh cargo were the first to cross the U.S. continent during the trial run. In the self-driving system used in the test run, if a multi-modal sensor deep learning visual algorithm and SLAM (parallel processing of self-position estimation and environmental mapping) technology were introduced, the vehicle was accompanied by one driver and one engineer. The route was tested against bad weather such as rain and snow over 11,000 feet above sea level, roads under construction, and long tunnels several miles.
In May 2021, the company test-transported freshwater watermelons from Nogales, Arizona, to Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma. On the same day, a truck loaded with watermelons from the storage warehouse of Zimara, an agricultural production and distribution company in Nogales, near the Mexican border, arrived at a logistics center in Oklahoma City after passing four states. Usually, it took 24 hours and 6 minutes to drive, but it was reduced by 10 hours to 14 hours, which was 42 percent less than the transportation time of drivers.
Self-driving trucks continued to operate in November 2009. Through a test run of self-driving trucks in the Texas area, two self-driving experts were on board, one with a commercial driver's license and one software engineer monitored the truck's operation in self-driving mode. In this test run, we learned how self-driving technology can help improve safety and efficiency on the I-45 section of the expressway between Dallas and Port Wes and Houston, and conducted a test run to further refine and expand self-driving.
In addition to the driving cases mentioned in this paper, self-driving trucks continue to operate, and some states are allowed to operate not only on test roads but also on general roads. As the demand-driven market trend becomes clearer, the era of self-driving trucks must come to provide uninterrupted supply to meet demand.
Fourth, an additional explanation of the relationship between COVID-19 and logistics is supplemented to the introduction and conclusion.
“The non-face to face culture” that has spread after the outbreak of COVID-19 is accelerating "Smart Logistics" that minimizes contact between workers in order to improve the efficiency of logistics operations. It is necessary to develop a smart logistics system that automates the entire process of cargo processing, such as warehousing, storage, and shipment. As demand for non-face-to-face delivery expands, the use of autonomous transportation such as cargo and ports is expected to expand even in exclusive environments. In fact, in the early days of the pandemic, companies had no choice but to suspend test services because of the risk of infection, which could rather advance autonomous driving tests without drivers. Currently, the completeness of autonomous driving technology is evaluated as reaching the stage of fully autonomous driving. In particular, as IT companies actively jumped in, technological progress accelerated.
According to the "2020 KPMG AVRI (Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index)" released by KPMG, a global accounting and consulting company, Singapore was ranked first, second the United States and South Korea seventh. It can be seen that technological progress has accelerated as IT companies have actively jumped in.
Thank you very much for reviewing this manuscript so that it can be more valuable through what you commented.
Sincerely,
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The topic is very interesting and deserves to be explored.
The chosen title is captivating but does not reflect the content very much, which is a sort of review of what others have already discussed. To increase the added value of the proposed work, better structuring of the contents should be implemented. This involves adding a section on the methodological approach where authors should describe the rationale behind the research (in such a case, a flowchart could help clarify it).
The focus should also be properly defined: it seems only to involve the Korean context from a regulatory standpoint, but a few references to the USA or the UK are also included without a defined framework. Besides, in Section 3, a mention of different levels of autonomous driving should be included. Even if lower levels of autonomous driving are expected to be available shortly, fully automated trucks (level 5) are not likely to enter the market in the near future. Furthermore, section 3.4 “Driving Cases of Autonomous Trucks,” should be improved by providing a more detailed description of the tests performed in the United States and also extending it by some European cases.
Finally, how COVID-19 impacts logistics and supply chain should be covered by including some effects on the related research field.
Author Response
Dear, Reviewer :
Thank you for reviewing this manuscript. Based on the opinions of the reviewer, this article can be developed to a higher level. Various comments mentioned by the reviewer have been revised as follows.
First, I received your opinion on the "methodological approach", but the methodology in this study is literature research. Therefore, we did not use empirical analysis data because it is not an engineering study that conducts empirical analysis, but a legal analysis using secondary data. Instead, we analyzed the regulations of Korea and the United States, and studied the cases of the United States. And we presented the necessary contents for the introduction of autonomous driving in Korea. In the future, we will add content on empirical analysis in the study so that quantified data can be presented.
Second, according to the opinion that the focus should be properly defined, the scope of this article was limited to Korea and the United States. because the U.S. has advanced autonomous driving technology and regulations, but Korea is still insufficient. Since the manuscript describes only the Korean regulations, the autonomous driving regulations of the United States are added and summarized as follows(159-180) :
When discussing legal regulations on self-driving, it is essential to mention the United States. Legal problems related to self-driving cars in the U.S. began in August 2011 when Google crashed into a self-driving car. In this case, the accident occurred after changing from a person's driving mode to a Jowl driving mode, raising the need for legal regulation.
In the case of the U.S., the federal and state are simultaneously trying to legislate for self-driving cars, and the legislation is generally centered on the state, and the federal NHTSA is presenting a comprehensive framework.
In the United States, the first federal law on self-driving vehicles, the Safely Enforcing Lives Future Deployment and Researchin Vehicle Evolution Act, was introduced on July 27, 2017, and was first enacted at the federal level in September 2017.
Already before federal legislation, state-by-state legislation on self-driving car permission has already been introduced by a total of 33 states, including six in 2012, nine in 2013, 12 in 2014, 16 in 2015, 20 in 2016, and 2017.From Nevada to California, Florida, DC, Michigan, Nostakoda, Tennessee and Utah, the law stipulates the concept of self-driving cars and obligations to record operational data, etc. Although slightly different from state to state, it is closely structured and includes definitions of the relevant concepts of self-driving cars, test driving requirements for self-driving cars, registration requirements, automakers' responsibilities, and regulatory obligations.
Third, according to the mention providing a more detailed description of the tests performed in the United States, we add four specific tests in chronological order to the under-explained US autonomous truck case.
There are several examples of testing and usage of autonomous trucks globally. For example, in Korea, platooning performed has been performed: when the driver of the following truck approaches the leading vehicle, it switches to platooning mode. Thereafter, the following truck maintains a distance of at least 16.7m, with real-time control based on the acceleration and deceleration of the car in front. The driver of the lead truck can reduce driving fatigue through semi-autonomous driving. Meanwhile, the driver of the following truck can let go of the steering wheel, thereby being completely free from driving. It is also possible to deal with unforeseen incidents such as another vehicle cutting in between the trucks. If another vehicle cuts in between platooning trucks, the following truck automatically keeps a sufficient distance (at least 25m) from that vehicle. The test run in Korea successfully implemented the technology for the following truck to operate sudden braking when the leading truck makes a sudden stop or brake in an unexpected situation.
The United States had its first cargo transport by an autonomous truck on October 25, 2016 [24]. The world's first commercial self-driving delivery was successful, traveling 120 miles from Colorado in two hours. The track could drive without the assistance of the driver on the highway, validate the traffic conditions, choose acceleration and speed, and keep the lane.
In June 2019, USPS also completed a trial run of self-driving trucks that can transport mail in cooperation with Tuisimple. USPS tested self-driving trucks while moving from Dallas, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona, on a 1,000-mile road, but the main goal of this test was to verify safety.
Another example is the successful trans-East-West transportation of the U.S. continent in December 2019 with Level 4 self-driving trucks. The self-driving truck reached Pennsylvania from California, and as a Level 4 self-driving truck, refrigerated containers full of fresh cargo were the first to cross the U.S. continent during the trial run. In the self-driving system used in the test run, if a multi-modal sensor deep learning visual algorithm and SLAM (parallel processing of self-position estimation and environmental mapping) technology were introduced, the vehicle was accompanied by one driver and one engineer. The route was tested against bad weather such as rain and snow over 11,000 feet above sea level, roads under construction, and long tunnels several miles.
In May 2021, the company test-transported freshwater watermelons from Nogales, Arizona, to Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma. On the same day, a truck loaded with watermelons from the storage warehouse of Zimara, an agricultural production and distribution company in Nogales, near the Mexican border, arrived at a logistics center in Oklahoma City after passing four states. Usually, it took 24 hours and 6 minutes to drive, but it was reduced by 10 hours to 14 hours, which was 42 percent less than the transportation time of drivers.
Self-driving trucks continued to operate in November 2009. Through a test run of self-driving trucks in the Texas area, two self-driving experts were on board, one with a commercial driver's license and one software engineer monitored the truck's operation in self-driving mode. In this test run, we learned how self-driving technology can help improve safety and efficiency on the I-45 section of the expressway between Dallas and Port Wes and Houston, and conducted a test run to further refine and expand self-driving.
In addition to the driving cases mentioned in this paper, self-driving trucks continue to operate, and some states are allowed to operate not only on test roads but also on general roads. As the demand-driven market trend becomes clearer, the era of self-driving trucks must come to provide uninterrupted supply to meet demand.
Fourth, an additional explanation of the relationship between COVID-19 and logistics is supplemented to the introduction and conclusion.
“The non-face to face culture” that has spread after the outbreak of COVID-19 is accelerating "Smart Logistics" that minimizes contact between workers in order to improve the efficiency of logistics operations. It is necessary to develop a smart logistics system that automates the entire process of cargo processing, such as warehousing, storage, and shipment. As demand for non-face-to-face delivery expands, the use of autonomous transportation such as cargo and ports is expected to expand even in exclusive environments. In fact, in the early days of the pandemic, companies had no choice but to suspend test services because of the risk of infection, which could rather advance autonomous driving tests without drivers. Currently, the completeness of autonomous driving technology is evaluated as reaching the stage of fully autonomous driving. In particular, as IT companies actively jumped in, technological progress accelerated.
According to the "2020 KPMG AVRI (Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index)" released by KPMG, a global accounting and consulting company, Singapore was ranked first, second the United States and South Korea seventh. It can be seen that technological progress has accelerated as IT companies have actively jumped in.
Thank you very much for reviewing this manuscript so that it can be more valuable through what you commented.
Sincerely,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a review paper which mainly analyzes autonomous truck platooning presenting the corresponding legal issues, potential problems and benefits. The authors should state their objective to inform the readers what they can hope to learn. The revised version includes further information from USA in terms of regulations and additional effects of COVID-19, which gives added value to the research. In addition, the case of autonomous trucks in USA is thoroughly described (in the revised version) presenting the reduced travel times achieved. Overall, the research content of this paper is very interesting and brings a new insight on utilizing autonomous truck platooning.
Reviewer 2 Report
Given the improvements made in the latest version, in my opinion, the article can now be accepted.
