Autonomous vehicles may very well be the future, but South Africa does not have the road infrastructure that will see trucks move without drivers for long distances. According to Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx, while artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and virtual reality technologies are increasingly being used in the road freight sector internationally, South African companies are still lagging behind. This was confirmed by research looking into the uptake and expectations for emerging technologies which found only 13% of corporate SA had deployed AI solutions, while 9% used blockchain platforms. “A mere 3.1% of enterprises use a combination of robotics and AI, while virtual and augmented reality is used by just over a third of organisations,” said Goldstuck. “In a similar study in 2018, 63% of respondents said they planned to use it going forward, but this year that number dropped to only 21%.” According to Goldstuck the predominant reason for local firms’ slow uptake is the high cost and the scarcity of skills. “Selfdriving is primarily about AI,” he said, indicating that the use of AI was increasing in the transport sector overall, with technologies arriving at a furious pace. Goldstuck said much of the technology at present was about making driving safer. But complete autonomous trucks moving cargo over long distances was not a South African reality just yet. “Every single manufacturer in the world is working on the autonomous vehicle and that includes trucks. It is no longer a concept, but a reality,” he said. “But you need the right kind of road and communications infrastructure. These vehicles can only operate on very specific roads. If we want to see autonomous trucks in use locally, which many may very well want, the country’s infrastructure will have to improve dramatically.” Also, he said, the regulatory environment would have to be adapted to allow for autonomous trucks. Goldstuck said that did not mean Africa was not ready for disruption as it was already being seen in several countries, including South Africa. “South Africa’s roads are not ready for self-driving trucks, but they are ready for driver-assisted vehicles and we definitely will see an increase.”
SA roads are not ready for self-driving trucks, but they are ready for driverassisted vehicles. – Arthur Goldstuck