Autonomous Driving of Commercial Vehicles within Cordoned Off Terminals

In recent years, the development of autonomous trucks has progressed rapidly. It can be assumed that such vehicles will be ready within the next decade. In order to make use of the advantages of automated driving along the entire transport chain, it is necessary to use the autonomous vehicles on public roads as well as on the terminal areas. The paper presents the extent to which it is possible to adopt autonomously driving trucks to closed terminal areas. Further it discusses the technical, operational and legal requirements for vehicles, transport service providers and terminals involved. Based on the requirements a concept for autonomous driving of commercial vehicles in cordoned off areas is presented. Afterwards this concept is transformed with the current processes on a fully automated container terminal into a concrete example. This example shows how autonomous commercial vehicles can be integrated in the operational processes of an existing terminal.