Colorado Deploys Self-Driving Crash Trucks to Protect Highway Workers

The Colorado Department of Transportation is deploying new self-driving highway maintenance trucks to protect workers on the road.

These autonomous truck-mounted attenuators are designed to absorb impacts in roadside work areas and shield crews from potentially deadly collisions. CDOT already had the vehicles in its fleet, but the trucks previously required a person in the cab.

“These vehicles are designed to get hit so people don’t have to,” Kay Kelly, CDOT’s chief of innovative mobility, said at a Sept. 29 press event. “We want to remove the human from that truck whenever possible.”

The technology uses sensors, actuators and video links to enable the self-driving truck to follow behind a paint-striping or maintenance vehicle. If an object enters the lane, it triggers an automatic stop.

The autonomous truck is fitted with a protective cage that acts as a crash cushion.

“We’re in an era of ongoing discussions about artificial intelligence’s role — what jobs humans can and should hand over to tech,” Kelly said. “Removing a human from a self-driving attenuator is an obvious choice.”

CDOT’s implementation of the autonomous truck-mounted attenuators is currently focused on striping projects. Three such vehicles are being used in Limon, Pueblo and southwest Colorado.

The department wants to expand both across the state and to mowing, pothole patching and sweeping projects.

“While these autonomous, attenuated trucks can’t be used in every instance and can’t prevent every crash, they represent an enormous leap forward in safety for our maintenance workers,” Kelly said.

In 2023, 16 people were killed in Colorado highway work zone incidents. The number almost doubled last year, rising to 31 deaths — including two roadside workers.

Source: Colorado Department of Transportation, Denver Gazette, Western Slope Now