Do Logistics Professionals Actually Want Self-Driving Tech?
Once self-driving trucks arrive, will they actually be embraced by the industry? When a revolutionary technology comes along, from laptops to cell phones, it often takes literal decades to truely become ubiquitous.
Today’s professionals have a few caveats about the conditions that self-driving trucks will need to operate within in order to get a stamp of approval. Here’s what it takes to make self-driving trucks a good solution, according to our new May 2025 survey:
- Low traffic hours: 32% of logistics professionals say that self-driving tech works best when few vehicles are on the road.
- Long-haul highway journeys: 31% of respondents picked long-haul trips as the best scenario for self-driving trucks.
- Highway journeys between distribution centers: 29% of respondents picked this option, restricting trips to clear, pre-set destinations.
- Short haul journeys: 18% say self-driving tech is best for short haul trips, putting this option a little below those who prefer long-haul trips.
These scenario qualifications make sense. Self-driving technology would have fewer chances to make any mistakes when fewer road users are around, and the technology would likely be at its most buggy when it first debuts.
Plus, long-haul trips are the most attractive use for the technology from a cost perspective, since it would replace the hourly pay of a human driver with a flat fee for the vehicle itself. And if the technology is withheld for travel between distribution centers, humans can take back over for last-mile deliveries, which might be harder to automate.
Overall, the surveyed freight professionals are cautious about the nascent technology. Nearly a fifth (19%) of them say that they would pick a self-driving truck rather than recruit a new driver if they were given a choice — which leaves four-fifths who would not say the same.
