Google says it’s working on self-driving semi trucks

[youngtea]

Waymo is starting to test its autonomous driving technology in a Peterbilt semi truck, according to multiple media reports. The Alphabet-owned company was recently spotted testing a single truck on a closed track in California.

“Self-driving technology can transport people and things much more safely than we do today and reduce the thousands of trucking-related deaths each year,” a Waymo spokesperson told BuzzFeed. “We’re taking our eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a technical exploration into how our technology can integrate into a truck.”

If the tests are successful, Waymo will begin testing the truck in Arizona later this year, Axios reports.

Long-distance trucking represents a major opportunity for autonomous driving, as the majority of routes are on long, straight highways where the trucker’s goal is to maintain a steady speed in the slow lane.

A 2007 federal study estimated there were some 3,600 truck crashes per month between mid-2001 and late 2003. Driver error was a major factor in 87 percent of those crashes. Nearly half of all crashes in the study were due to truckers speeding or being unfamiliar with the roadway.

Autonomous technology will greatly reduce truck crashes, proponents say. Initial systems might automatically share roadway data with other trucks and automatically apply the brakes in an emergency, or assist the driver with staying in their lane. Intermediate systems might resemble cruise control, where the trucker could press a button to engage autonomous driving at will.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/06/02/google-waymo-self-driving-semi-truck.html

 

[accounter]

We all in trouble. No load board needed as Uber will contact google direct.

 

[Freight Broker]

Lots of changes coming, but it will take more time, I think, than five or ten years for autonomous trucks. The last page in this month's Today's Trucking is a real eye opener... electric trucks on the Montreal - Toronto corridor starting in 2018! I had to read the article twice it was that interesting. I'm old enough to remember when trucks were loud and smokey beasts.. you had to cover your ears when they passed.. Hearing loss was common among drivers. Now they just swoosh by... almost as quiet as a car.

 

[youngtea]

We all in trouble. No load board needed as Uber will contact google direct.

Google doesn't need Uber for anything. Google has far more resources; cash flow, programmers, customer support and everything else.

 

[theman]

Trucking companies will still exist because someone has to capitalize the trucks. But the whole deal with drivers and the whole brokerage and tracing process that is manual now for the most part will all become automated. Sometimes progress sucks.

 

[Freight Broker]

Not so sure about that... bank machines were supposed to replace tellers 30 years ago. And automated phone systems were supposed to replace the receptionist.. neither of these has come to pass. When it comes to predicting the future there are two types of people: those who don't know what the future holds... and those who don't know they don't know..I will throw my lot in with the former. According to my crystal ball brokers will still be around in the decades to come, albeit the transactional aspects of their jobs will be more automated.. But transportation services (like almost everything else in a competitive free market system) have to be bought and sold... my humble guess is that's what we're going to be doing more of in the future..