ICT and New Human-machine Interactions for Trucks and Buses of the Future - Human-Computer Interactions in Transport - page 156

6.2. Trucks in the context of ICT
First of all, we conducted a global discussion to reveal the informational context
in which we could place a truck (or a fleet of trucks) to significantly increase yield
thanks to contributions from the ICT. It was a matter of envisaging all the possible
cases for the introduction of computer tools to all of the stages and work situations
of a truck, to extrapolate a coherent proposal of desirable tools. The result of this
preliminary study was the following list:
- truck itself : its technical state (incidents, accidents, overhaul, maintenance);
- truck on the road : dynamic behavior, communication with the infrastructure,
etc.;
- truck and its crew : driving time, driver management, hotels;
- truck and its load: optimization of journeys, cargo management and all
logistics.
In the context of road transport of the future, as the ongoing work shows, a truck
benefits or will be able to benefit from different connections allowing it to
communicate with:
- the transport infrastructure , providing it with varied information about the
road that can be either static (curving, turning, uneven road surfaces, widening or
narrowing) or dynamic (due to ice, traffic jams, diversions or accidents);
- the satellite , allowing drivers to remotely monitor their driving (speed, fuel
consumption and stops), know their itinerary and geographic location, communicate
with their logistical base, collect information concerning the state of the vehicle for
maintenance or in the case of breakdown;
- vehicles that are in proximity going in the same direction (in front or behind)
with a view to synchronizing driving (speed adaptation, communication of changes
in trajectory and braking) which can ultimately lead to the implementation of a
“virtual train of vehicles” in which only the first driver will be active, the others
maintaining a passive watchfulness. Here other drivers can intervene to take control
of the vehicle only in the event of a problem [CHA].
All these aspects are directly related to the possibilities offered by the ICT and
this applies to all the vectors of computerization: storing, processing, distribution
(network) and information exchange, more specifically between users and the
system. Based on these initial observations, we first established a summary diagram
showing how the different aspects can be materialized. This diagram came out of
our informal discussions with Renault-Trucks in Lyon. It is shown in Figure 6.1.