Uber Highlights Self-Driving Truck Hauling Goods Cross Country
Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group has released a video showcasing how its Autonomous Truck technologies can be used to haul goods across the country.
The video features an Uber autonomous truck transferring freight with a traditional heavy duty truck in Arizona. According to the video, the self-driving truck was bringing goods that originated in the Midwest to a point near Topock, Ariz., which is near the California-Arizona border. The self-driving truck is met by they traditionally-driven truck which has brought its own load from Los Angeles.
The video was not just for show, Uber’s autonomous truck actually hauled the trailer from Sanders, Ariz., to Topock – a route spanning the length of the state. Arizona has become a hotbed of autonomous truck development in the past year, due in part to its regulatory climate that places few restrictions on self-driven vehicle testing.
At the meeting point, the two trucks traded loads, with the regular truck taking the goods from the Midwest back toward Los Angeles and the self-driving truck taking its new load back to the East.
Apart from showing how Uber’s autonomous truck technology can already be used on long haul routes, the video is meant to showcase that, in either case, a truck driver is still needed to operate each vehicle. This supports Uber’s vision for the future of trucking, where mixed fleets of self-driving long-haul trucks and human-driven regional trucks work together in a transfer hub logistical model.
Uber see’s its self-driving trucks taking over many of the long-haul cross country routes while traditionally driven trucks transfer the goods in regional settings. Photo: Uber ATG
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This could also accelerate the timeline for self-driving trucks being used in regular operations. Current autonomous trucks still require a driver to be behind the wheel at all times, and have a harder time navigating …Read the rest of this story
