Whether you call them “driver-less semis”, “autonomous trucks” or “self-driving transports”, one thing is virtually guaranteed: in the not-too-distant future, your distribution, 3PL or transportation company will pick-up and deliver goods using transport trucks that do not have a human at the controls.

The Big Question is: When?

There’s been a lot of publicity surrounding Google’s self-driving cars and their on-street testing program, which began in 2005. Four U.S. states now allow public road testing of driverless cars, including Michigan, home to the major U.S. automakers. And Google revealed their first fully-functioning driverless car in May, 2014.

In the past few years, car and truck models from a variety of manufacturers have appeared on the market equipped with automated blind spot, lane control and braking technology.

But the story on driver-less transport trucks is really just starting; literally. Officials from Daimler and Freightliner, and the Governor of Nevada, unveiled the world’s first driverless transport truck, the Freightliner Inspiration, atop the Hoover Dam in Nevada on May 5, 2015.

Far from “fully-functioning”, the Inspiration has limited driverless technology and still requires a human to be at the controls to takeover in certain situations:

• The autonomous technology takes over only on the highway
• It will not overtake slower vehicles on its own
• If conditions exist where the truck cannot detect lane markings, like in snow, it will alert the operator to takeover.

Clearly there are many kilometres of testing ahead before driverless trucks can manage all the tasks that today’s drivers perform, including city driving and backing into a distribution loading dock in a tight squeeze.

While it’s still anyone’s guess as to how long it will take to complete the massive amounts of testing needed to have full confidence in the driverless technology, if Google’s driverless car program is any indication, it will be at least 10 years before we see a transport truck delivering its freight with no one behind the wheel.

Never-the-less, 3PLs, transportation and distribution companies should start preparing.