This technology looks hardly any better then Tesla's lane keeping assistant, the speed is set by the driver (it doesn't really matter if the speed is set by the driver in the very first vehicle IMO), and It only handles very simple roads
> The trucks did not travel in platoon for the entire journey — only on motorways when traffic conditions were "normal" — and each vehicle, even those following the lead truck, had a human driver on hand.
Also, the convoy formed a network and explicitly communicated with the goal of not just driving autonomously but also recognizing cost savings:
> a Wi-Fi connection keeping their braking and acceleration (but not steering) in sync.
So quite a bit different from just lane keeping.
>This technology looks hardly any better then Tesla's lane keeping assistant
So? It's the first step in removing a human driver. Are you assuming that this technology is not going to ever improve? The end game is a head office operator that controls a network of 50 trucks across a country remotely. It's just a matter of time until they get there.
It's not better or worse, it's different. The main difference is that the trucks in the convoy talk to each other and can thus drive more efficient manoeuvres than a Tesla can because of that. Also not sure how this is related to Tesla given that Tesla does not actually manufacture trucks.