The transition to our self-driving future has been anything but smooth. In San Francisco, Restless natives have come out in droves against the introduction of autonomous taxis, Tesla has given autonomous driving capabilities a bad name Given the hundreds of accidents linked to its autopilot systems, governments around the world are arguing about it best way to regulate autonomous cars. Now a fleet of autonomous trucks is poised to complicate matters even further.
Long-distance transport by truck is seen by many as this logically suitable for self-driving vehicles. Autonomous trucks can travel mile after mile without needing a break, they don’t complain about being away from their families for days on end, and they don’t have to live in a huge truck with built-in space to sleep and eat. That’s because this that Companies like Volvo have invested millions in the development of autonomous trucks.
Now a company called Aurora Innovation is closer than any other to safely deploying autonomous trucks on our roads, they say a new report from Associated Press (AP). As the website reports:
Aurora and its competitors expect thousands of such self-driving trucks to be deployed on America’s public highways within three to four years. The aim is for the trucks, which can run almost around the clock without interruption, to speed up the flow of goods, shorten delivery times and potentially reduce costs. You will also travel short distances on secondary roads.
The Trucks are equipped with a number of sensors To detect the road in front of you, this includes laser, radar and camera sensors. All of this technology has so far been put through its paces on a test track, where the truck has demonstrated how it can detect and avoid obstacles on the route ahead. The Aurora trucks are also being tested on Texas roads Safety for drivers behind the wheelwhere AP reports they safely reached highway speeds of 65 mph or more.
Now these tests are nearing completion and it will soon be time Trucks entering certain states’ highways – especially those where there isn’t much snow, as they haven’t quite mastered driving on ice yet. As AP reports:
“We want to have thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road,” said Chris Urmson, CEO of Aurora and former head of Google’s autonomous vehicle operations. “And to achieve that, we have to be safe. This is the only way it will be accepted by the public. Frankly, it’s the only option our customers will accept.”
That safety will be paramount as these massive, driverless trucks begin operating alongside regular, human drivers on Texas highways. So far, Aurora Only trucks were involved in three accidents involving the transport of goods over more than 1 million miles on public roads. In each case, the AP reports that the accidents were “minor” and were all caused by “errors made by human drivers in other vehicles.”
Are statistics like these enough to allay your fears about a driverless behemoth coming your way next on the highway? Or is your perception of self-driving vehicles clouded by the constant bad news surrounding them? Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology? Let us know in the comments section below.