Rio Tinto, a mining company, is using driverless trucks at its Nammuldi and Yandicoogina mine sites in Australia. The trucks are being operated remotely by workers at an operations center in Perth, which is around 750 miles away from the mining sites.
The Yandicoogina mine is located north west of Newman, and Josh Bennett manages the mining operations there. Bennett is involved with running 22 of the driverless trucks being used on the site. Bennett said the two pits are the largest of their kind in the world.
Bennett said the key change for the company’s employees and team members is the work they are currently doing. He said to the naked eye, it looks like conventional mining methods are being used.
The operations manager said they mapped out their entire mine and put that into a system. The system works out how to maneuver the driverless trucks through the mine.
The trucks can operate 24/7, 365 days per year, without a driver who needs to take lunch breaks or bathroom breaks. Sources estimate each truck can save around 500 work hours per year.
Bennett said the technology slashes operating costs while taking away dangerous jobs.
Rio is not only using driverless trucks, but the company is testing out unmanned trains and mining with robot drills. The aim is to use the machines at as many mine sites as possible. In the future, most of Rio’s supply chain from the pit to the port will be remotely controlled from Perth.
The Company Behind The Trucks
Komatsu is a Japanese multinational company that not only manufactures mining equipment, but also construction, military and industrial equipment. In 2011, Rio Tinto announced it was going to buy driverless trucks from Komatsu Limited. That same year, Rio Tinto signed a deal to buy at least 150 trucks from Komatsu over the course of four years, with the first trucks arriving the following year.
Suncor, an integrated energy company based in Canada, started testing out driverless trucks back in 2013. Suncor also has an agreement with Komatsu. A few months ago, Suncor said it planned to start buying driverless-capable trucks, starting this year. These trucks can be driven by a person or it can drive by itself.
Currently, Suncor has 800 drivers who operate the driverless-capable trucks.
Other Mining Companies Using Driverless Vehicles
Rio Tinto is not the only mining company using driverless vehicles. Both BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group have been turning to technology as a way to cut costs. For instance, FMG is working with Caterpillar, a machinery company based in the USA, to increase its driverless trucks to 45.
About two years ago, BHP Billiton started to test out six driverless trucks. Last year the company announced it was going to expand its driverless trucks to a second ore mine site in the Pilbara region.
Las year a spokesperson for BHP said the use of the driverless haul trucks had the potential to introduce safety benefits. This is because the trucks removes people from environments that have the potential to be hazardous.
Implications Of Using Driverless Vehicles In The Mining Industry
Mine site automation does have implications. Some implications include reducing the numbers of the workforce on mine sites and save on employee costs. Mines that were considered uneconomical may become profitable.
With greater mine site automation may come social implications, such as a reduction in population of remote mining towns. Overall labor requirements may also decrease, and a decrease in lower skilled labor requirements is another implication.
Employment Concerns
Even though the mining industry appears to be moving away from manual jobs, a workforce with different skill sets need to be trained.
According to ABC, Dr Carla Boehl, who is the senior lecturer with Curtin University’s School of the Mines, said the changing nature of the mining industry is creating new opportunities for her students. She said there will be fewer jobs in terms of trades, but the industry needs maintainers, and the industry can’t live without them.
Boehl said the technology will increase the number of jobs in work relating to analytics. She said it’s a change from trade jobs to ones that are more analytical.
The students Boehl teaches are interested in learning about the technology, but there is a lot of secrecy surrounding it. Boehl said in terms of what’s happening in automation, things are still a bit of a secret. She added that as of now they don’t have a lot of information from the big players.
Driverless Trucks And The Trucking Industry
Driverless trucks are being used beyond the mining industry. Semi-autonomous trucks have recently debuted in Germany. Daimler, a German automotive corporation, got permission from authorities for its trial.
The vehicle is equipped with sensors, cameras and radar. The technology also interacts with the driver when the driver needs to resume control of the vehicle. For instance, the driver will be alerted to resume control of the wheel when the truck’s technology senses treacherous road or weather conditions. If the driver doesn’t take control of the wheel, the truck will come to a stop.
There are a number of barriers Daimler will have to overcome before its driverless trucks go mainstream.
Truck drivers are likely not going to have to worry about driverless trucks taking their jobs, at least not anytime soon. In America, there will be a shortage of around 50,000 truck drivers by the end of this year. Two years ago the shortage was around 30,000 truck drivers.
Trucking jobs are not the easiest jobs til fill. In America, about 750,000 are for hire drivers, which means drivers are employed by a trucking company that was hired by another company, such as a grocery chain.
If the trend continues, the shortage of truck drivers in the country may reach up to 175,000 by 2024. Over the next decade, more than 850,000 new drivers will need to be hired, according to a report by the American Trucking Associations (ATA).
Driverless Cars And Insurance
As driverless vehicles seem to be the way of the future, this brings up concerns about insurance, such as who is responsible if a driverless vehicle gets into an accident?
Insurance Information Institute points out that liability laws may evolve. Also, as cars become more automated, the manufacturers may be the ones that have to prove it wasn’t responsible in the event their vehicles were involved in an accident. In regards to liability, things may evolve so lawsuits don’t end up putting manufacturers out of business.
