Posted on 12/10/2019 11:01:41 AM PST by C19fan
A self-driving truck has completed the first cross-country commercial freight run.
Plus.ai, announced its truck traveled 2,800 miles autonomously from California to Pennsylvania hauling a fully-loaded refrigerated trailer of perishable cargo.
The vehicle is fitted with advanced autonomous driving system that utilizes multimodal sensor fusion, deep learning visual algorithms and simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) technologies.
The truck drove in autonomous mode across interstate 17 and interstate 70, while traveling through different terrains and weather conditions.
Although a safety driver and engineer were on-board, this journey, according to Plus.ai, validates ‘the system’s ability to safely handle a wide range of weather and road conditions.’
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I don’t know how I feel about this.
I do know you will pry the steering wheel out of my cold dead hands.
I presumed testing like this had been done about 10 years ago. There has been such talk for years.
They should probably come up with a better phrase and acronym when it comes to large self-driving trucks...
I think the distinction here is the length of the trip.
I think in the southwest there is a production trucking line that is using autonomous mode on the highway, and a driver takes control in town. Sort of like a harbor pilot.
Many people like to throw around the term Integrated. Maybe they should call it —
Integrated Simultaneous Location And Mapping technologies.
Betting it can’t back up to a loading dock. I don’t see a “self-driving” car choosing a parking spot and then parking itself.
I know the end game is to eliminate user control over the car, and eventually to eliminate the private car and get us into state-controlled vehicles that follow state-ordered rules and are taxed according to state-imposed rules.
Like BBQToadRibs says, “out of my cold lifeless hands.”
Anyone here ever have GPS give them wrong directions?
Anyone here ever have to reboot their computer?
Anyone here ever have a ‘smart’ appliance screw up on them?
I don’t want my life on the line with a big rig truck driving autonomously. Just ask yourself what the purpose of this is? It’s obviously not good for truck drivers who will lose their jobs. It’s to drive down costs for the companies that won’t have to pay for drivers. Their profit vs our safety. No thanks.
It’s hard to tell from the article but I don’t think it drove all by itself the entire way. Sounds like it did it ONLY on two highways...17 and 70.
What exactly is “cross country”? It/they/whatever didn’t go completely across the country. With that definition, I walked cross country to the mailbox and back.
Let a speck of dust get in the computer and guess what happens. How easy is it to hack and get Hastings-cided?
ROTFLOL!
this truck included a driver the entire time! i would hardly call that a “self-driving” vehicle ...
what they did was exactly what piloted commercial aircraft do every day: running on autopilot most of the time, but manually piloted during crucial periods and when things go wrong or plans change due to weather and other conditions ...
in terms of complexity, flying a commercial airliner from point A to point B is massively simpler than simply driving across a large city during morning or evening commute, with changing traffic, weather and light conditions, and yet no airline in their right mind is going to turn all of their commercial flights into pilotless drones ...
“...simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) technologies.”
They should probably come up with a better phrase and acronym when it comes to large self-driving trucks...”
Reminds me of CINCUS : Commander In Chief U S Pacific Fleet Pearl Harbor.
Well, I’ll first suggest that you don’t fly! Most of the flight is done by computer.
Second, there’s safety standards that will be applied that your desktop computer, navigation system, and appliances aren’t subjected to. There’s an entire industry around “safety software”. There’s multiple levels of redundancy in the system.
Eventually they’ll be better drivers than us. It’ll be considered immoral to drive yourself.
As far as jobs are concerned... Aircraft still have a pilot and a co-pilot. Truck drivers are always scarce respective to demand. For the foreseeable future they just won’t do the “long haul” but handle the “last mile”. This will enable them to always be local instead of always being away from home.
At worst, it’s just creative-destruction in action - create more jobs than it removes.
If a driver is going to be in the truck anyway, then design the system such that the computer system is there to help the driver - not supplant the driver.
Further, comparing autopilot in planes in an airspace in which planes at the same altitude are supposed to be at least 5 nautical miles from each other, to trucks on an interstate with entrances and exits and other cars and trucks in front, back and beside, is a little bit apples and oranges.
Let me get this straight. Trains, that run on rails, have an operator, but trucks, that share the road with families and children, are not going to have them?
Something based on Will or Sonny from Movin’ On would be fitting.
Get a chimp as a ride along backup.
Maybe even teach him how to sing like BJ McKay was going to do.
Quantity of these out on the road is what matters. “1”, and even then they got lucky.
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