Instead, the truck drives itself, and veteran driver Roger Nordqvist is at the ready only in case of unexpected problems. Swedish truck maker Scania is not the only auto manufacturer developing autonomous vehicles, but it recently became the first in Europe to pilot them while delivering commercial goods. "We take their goods from point A, drive them to point B, fully autonomously," Peter Hafmar, head of autonomous solutions at Scania, tells AFP outside the company's transport lab in Sodertalje, south of Stockholm. In the pilot project, the self-driving truck is manoeuvring a stretch of some 300 kilometres (186 miles) between Sodertalje and Jonkoping in Sweden's south, delivering fast-food goods. From the outside, the vehicle looks almost like any other lorry, save for a rail on the roof packed with cameras and two sensors resembling bug antennae on the sides.

There is no trick to packing a lorry up to its roofline and then sending it from point A to point B – but it is seldom possible. Scheduling gets trickier with partial loads, which are more the rule than the exception. Too often, lorries haul too much empty space around because dispatchers fail to allocate the freight optimally. The net effect is the equivalent of one lorry in three drives around empty on Germany's motorways. This is not just unsatisfying from the standpoint of traffic-prone roads.

My nephew, Michael, died on 22 May 2019. He was 15 years old. He loved his family, tractors, lorries, tanks, spaceships and video games (mostly about tractors, lorries, tanks and spaceships), and confronted every challenge in his short, difficult life with a resolute will that earned him much love and respect. Online in his favourite game, Elite Dangerous by Frontier Developments, he was known as CMDR Michael Holyland. In Michael's last week of life, thanks to the Elite Dangerous player community, a whole network of new friends sprang up in our darkest hour and made things more bearable with a magnificent display of empathy, kindness and creativity.

Convoys of driverless lorries could soon take to roads across the UK with the M6/M74 corridor set to be the busiest. At least that's according to a new report that examined the routes across the country most likely to be used by firms who employ the burgeoning technology. The route between Manchester and Glasgow was found to be the most commercially valuable, while the M25 around London would see the biggest improvements in safety with the introduction of autonomous vehicles, the report forecasts. Platoons of self-driving lorries are expected to be trialled on England's motorways by the end of the year. Convoys of driverless lorries could soon take to roads across the UK, with the best routes examined in a new report by transport information firm Inrix.

DELIVERING 25 PACKAGES by lorry or van might seem straightforward enough, but it is devilishly complex. The number of possible routes adds up to around 15 septillion (trillion trillion), according to Goldman Sachs, an investment bank. Integrating AI into the complex web of production and distribution--the supply chain--will have a bigger economic impact than any other application of the technology and affect a larger number of businesses, says Sudhir Jha of Infosys, a large IT company. McKinsey estimates that firms will derive between $1.3trn and $2trn a year in economic value from using AI in supply chains and manufacturing (see chart). Many firms are already using robots powered by machine learning to improve the running of their factories and warehouses.

Self-driving lorries are to be trialled on England's motorways despite experts' fears they could put safety at risk. Up to three wirelessly connected HGVs will move in convoy, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle. The scheme is expected to be tried on major roads next year for environmental reasons. Driving in close convoy could see the front lorry push air out of the way, making the other vehicles more efficient and lowering their emissions. But the AA warned a'platoon' of HGVs could obscure road signs for motorists and block access to slip roads.

Convoys of semi-autonomous trucks are expected to be tested on public roads in the UK before the end of next year, the government announced today. The Department for Transport and Highways England have rustled up £8.1 million in funding between them to pass on to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), the independent organisation that'll conduct the trials. TRL will start with simulation studies and driver training before moving onto a test track and finally, public roads by the end of 2018. Platooning, as it's known, is one of the simpler ways of harnessing self-driving technology. While the truck at the front of a convoy remains under human control, trailing vehicles follow its lead autonomously.

Small convoys of partially driverless lorries will be tried out on major British roads by the end of next year, the government has announced. A contract has been awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to carry out the tests of vehicle "platoons". Up to three lorries will travel in formation, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle. But the head of the AA said platoons raised safety concerns. The TRL will begin trials of the technology on test tracks, but these trials are expected to move to major roads by the end of 2018.

A self-driving car made headlines last summer when its human'driver' was killed in an accident. Both car and driver had failed to spot a lorry across the road ahead, because the whiteness of the truck was too similar to the sky. But what about if the human driver had seen the lorry, but could only avoid it by swerving into another car, or a pedestrian? Would it then have been'right' for the car to override the driver and allow the crash into the lorry, potentially saving other'innocent' lives? I did a survey on these kind of questions at Moral Machine at MIT, and it definitely got me thinking.

The problems with introducing driverless cars are greater than you identify in your editorial (Intelligent cars raise questions that only society can answer, 16 December) and yet almost certain to be ignored. No amount of testing can prove them as safe as human drivers unless the software is frozen and never updated. Verifying the behaviour of machine-learning systems is an unsolved research challenge. There are major problems of cybersecurity – many of the sensors and communications have already been hacked. Who would risk being a passenger alone, when anyone can easily force the car to stop?