{"id":1416,"date":"2016-04-25T13:31:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T13:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minutes.machine.market\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2016-04-25T13:31:01","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T13:31:01","slug":"autonomous-technology-at-ports-the-self-driving-cranes-and-carriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/machine.market\/blog\/autonomous-technology-at-ports-the-self-driving-cranes-and-carriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomous technology, Self-driving cranes and carriers to run USA’s biggest ports."},"content":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0John Lippert<\/a><\/div>\n
Find John on Twitter\u00a0johnmlippert<\/a><\/div>\n
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On This Waterfront, Robot Longshoremen Are the New Contenders<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
On one end of a dock at America\u2019s busiest port, tractor-trailers haul containers through dense, stop-and-go traffic. Sometimes they collide. Sometimes the drivers must wait, diesel engines idling, as piles are unstacked to find the specific container they need.<\/div>\n

A few hundred yards away, advanced algorithms select the most efficient pathway for autonomous carriers to move containers across the wharf. The four-story-high orange machines cradle their cargo, passing quietly within inches of each other, at speeds as fast as 18 miles an hour, but never touching. Self-driving cranes on tracks stack the containers and then deliver them to waiting trucks and trains with minimal human intervention.<\/p>\n

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A view of the fully-automated TraPac shipping terminal in the Port of Los Angeles. Photographer: Tim Rue\/Bloomberg<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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TraPac LLC\u2019s Los Angeles marine-cargo facility demonstrates how autonomous technology could revolutionize freight transport as much as or more than personal travel. TraPac\u2019s equipment doubles the speed of loading and unloading ships, saving money and boosting profits. Their impact is rivaling that of containerization, which eliminated most manual sorting and warehousing on docks after World War II.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cSelf-driving won\u2019t just rebuild the current freight system, it will create a whole new way of thinking about it,\u2019\u2019 said Larry Burns, a former research and development chief at General Motors Co. and now a consultant at Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google unit.\u00a0\u201cIt will happen sooner with goods movements than with personal transportation, because the economics are crystal clear.\u2019\u2019\u00a0Commercial shipments currently produce half the state\u2019s toxic diesel-soot emissions.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More automation also could help Governor Jerry Brown achieve his goal of zero-emission freight movement in California. Commercial shipments currently produce half the state\u2019s toxic diesel-soot emissions and 45 percent of the nitrogen oxide that plague Los Angeles with the nation\u2019s worst smog. In Long Beach, where most residents are Hispanic, black\u00a0or Asian, an estimated 15 percent<\/a> of the children have asthma, six percentage points higher than the national average, according to a community coalition report.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Air Resources Board<\/a> is scheduled to release a draft Sustainable Freight action plan<\/a> on April 29. It will encompass new regulations on vehicles and fuels, as well as subsidies for new infrastructure, communications and operating procedures, according to ARB Chairman Mary Nichols.<\/p>\n

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AutoStrads pick-up shipping containers and deliver them to various destinations within the TraPac terminal in the Port of Los Angeles. Photographer: Tim Rue\/Bloomberg<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>

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Brown wants 100,000 zero-emission freight-hauling machines in California by 2030, according to recent ARB workshop presentations. These could include self-driving cranes and carriers like those at TraPac. Brown also could subsidize fuel-saving alternatives, such as semi-autonomous trucks, which were recently tested<\/a>\u00a0in Europe. He may promote Uber-like services to find loads for empty or half-empty trucks. He\u2019s also considering a per-container cap on pollutants and greenhouse gases at each terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may be the most difficult and complex challenge we\u2019ve ever undertaken,\u2019\u2019 said Dan Sperling, a member of the ARB and professor of civil engineering and environmental science at the University of California, Davis. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to change the entire freight system.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland handle 40 percent of U.S. container traffic and converting them to all-electric equipment that\u2019s often self-driving will cost $35 billion in the next 30 years, compared with $7 billion to replace existing technologies, according to a December study for the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association<\/a>. Many terminal operators\u2014plagued by plunging freight rates\u2014won\u2019t be able to afford the transition without government help, said Mike Jacob, a PMSA vice president.<\/p>\n