Autonomy at the Border Part 2: What happens when an autonomous transport truck crosses an international border crossing?

?By: Jesse Moon and Eric Huggard

Welcome to the second article in our series of six, where we delve into the impact of autonomous technology on international border crossings and border agencies. Building on our previous article on the Impact of Autonomy at the Border, this installment explores how large autonomous commercial vehicles, such as trucks, influence technology, border infrastructure, business processes, policies, and data sharing as they transport goods across international borders. While it may seem like a distant concept, Loblaws, a major Canadian grocery chain, is already employing autonomous trucks to deliver goods from their central distribution center to various grocery stores in and around Toronto.

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Let’s explore the use case scenario?

Imagine an autonomous transport truck carrying merchandise for multiple retail stores, just 1km away from an international land border crossing. The truck's owner has already provided an electronic manifest of the goods to the Border Agency prior to the crossing. By chance, the autonomous truck is selected for an inspection, which can be conducted by an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone.

Once the UAV completes the inspection, it notifies the border agency that an additional inspection is required. The truck proceeds through the border crossing gate without intervention and continues to the secondary inspection, where border agency staff carry out the necessary checks manually.

Enabling this seamless journey requires several changes within a border agency, encompassing technology, border infrastructure, business processes, policies, and data sharing.

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Let’s start with the implications for technology, infrastructure, and data sharing

Before the truck reaches the border, both the truck owner and the border agency must be equipped to receive and process an advanced electronic copy of all necessary commercial information, including manifests, permits, and supporting documentation. This necessitates the use of telecommunications hardware, standardized digital manifests, and continuous cellular network connectivity, regardless of the truck's location on either side of the border.

Once the information is received, the border agency utilizes their respective artificial intelligence (AI) systems to assess the risks associated with the manifest. Based on the assessment, the AI recommends either a pre-border UAV inspection, a secondary inspection involving human intervention, or no inspection at all. In our use case, where a pre-border UAV inspection is required, the border agency must have autonomous UAVs capable of communicating with the vehicle and conducting aerial inspections. These inspections may involve various types of non-intrusive inspection (NII) techniques and radiation portal monitoring (RPM). The data collected by the UAV needs to be transmitted back to the agency and analyzed by AI before the vehicle can cross the border. Again, this necessitates cellular network connectivity on both sides of the border, along with the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate the transfer of inspection data.

In our scenario, the AI identifies an anomaly based on the scan, prompting the border agency to instruct the truck to proceed through the border crossing directly to a secondary screening area. The border agency's infrastructure should facilitate a frictionless passage through the gate, as well as clearly communicate the location of the secondary inspection zone to the autonomous truck.

The technology and data implications for enabling this use case are not ground-breaking. The real challenge lies in fostering collaboration between public and private sector organizations to implement, adopt, and utilize the technology and data simultaneously, thereby enabling an end-to-end transformation.

Now, let's take a step back and consider the policy implications of the scenario, along with the necessary changes to enable frictionless border crossings in the not-so-distant future??

Policies will need to be amended to accommodate the crossing of fully autonomous vehicles without passengers across international borders. This implies a shift in the legal responsibility for the transport load, resting entirely with the owner of the vehicle, as there won't be a human driver involved. Changes are also necessary to allow AI to make most decisions regarding border crossings, ensuring that these decisions are made away from the physical border itself. With all information being collected digitally and no opportunity for human-to-human interaction, AI must be entrusted with decision-making responsibilities, necessitating updates to associated policies and legal frameworks. Additionally, there is a need for agreements between nations to allow UAV inspections to occur within their jurisdictions. While this may be relatively easier to achieve among regions with strong relationships and existing trade agreements, it is a crucial step toward extending the border's reach and enabling pre-inspections.?

We must also be aware that systems relying exclusively on technology are susceptible to malicious tampering, and require increased vigilance on cybersecurity practices.?An example of malicious activities may include forcefully triggering inspections to create intentional delays and diversions as a form of supply chain attack.

As for another security example, consider that an average autonomous vehicle may processes over 4TB of data per day, leading to a future where cars will create more data than people. If impacted by a cyber incident, it may have real consequences on the safety of passengers and pedestrians alike. It is important to understand what needs to be secured and develop specific security measures to protect Smart Transport and Intelligent Road Systems from cyber threats. Without internationally agreed and enforced security standards and regulations, the chances are that some vehicles may not have all of the required security controls and safety countermeasures in place, adding complexity to border control and risk to the general public.

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Significant change is required in nearly all aspects of the operation of a border to enable an autonomous commercial vehicle to cross in a frictionless manner. In addition, greater collaboration between neighbouring countries will be necessary to take advantage of the security and trade benefits of enabling a frictionless commercial crossing.??

Border agencies can begin to prepare by working with their clients and partners to develop a point of view on the ideal autonomous commercial border crossing journey could look like. Once completed, they can compare that journey against the current process and begin the process to close the gaps they have just identified.

?Our next post will explore what may need to occur to enable a family in their autonomous car to seamlessly cross an international border while they are asleep..

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For additional macroeconomic challenges in the automotive industry consider reading: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/industries/automotive-index

Thanks must also go to Victor M. , Adi Shanbhag and Daniel Melkin for your input.

Sources:

https://www.accenture.com/ca-en/services/high-tech/communications-technology??

https://www.loblaw.ca/en/driverless-vehicles-hit-the-road??

Images: DALL-E at labs.openai.com