Great and detailed article. I agree with the comment from balaselvam though. On the way towards full autonomy (whenever that might be achieved) you will get there incrementally (like Tesla is trying to do, their constant delays/promises notwithstanding). At some point highway driving will be ok, but even for highway driving it is absolutely imperative to have a very good understanding of how to drive, the level of autonomy needs to be quite advanced. Otherwise you can quickly end up in a situation where unforeseen traffic guidance, debris, loss of communication will result in a situation where the truck does not react well enough.
I doubt it is really possible to design a system for 'just' highway driving of such high quality that no intervention is required within the reaction time of a remote operator without actually trying to fully solve it. This could be limited to highways of course, but a loss of connection in city regions would then automatically mean the truck would have to stop where it is (in the middle of the road with hazards on)
I do like the remote operator scenario for start and end quite a lot though as it would ease the incremental inclusion of autonomy into the truck economy and offer higher safety with machines this big.
I doubt it is really possible to design a system for 'just' highway driving of such high quality that no intervention is required within the reaction time of a remote operator without actually trying to fully solve it. This could be limited to highways of course, but a loss of connection in city regions would then automatically mean the truck would have to stop where it is (in the middle of the road with hazards on)
I do like the remote operator scenario for start and end quite a lot though as it would ease the incremental inclusion of autonomy into the truck economy and offer higher safety with machines this big.