Posted on 12/11/2019 3:44:21 PM PST by Drango
A Silicon Valley startup has completed what appears to be the first commercial freight cross-country trip by an autonomous truck, which finished a 2,800-mile-run from Tulare, California to Quakertown, Pennsylvania for Land O’Lakes in under three days. The trip was smooth like butter, 40,000 pounds of it.
Plus.ai, a 3-year-old company in Cupertino, announced the milestone Tuesday. A safety driver was aboard the autonomous semi, ready to take the wheel if needed, along with a safety engineer who observed how things were going.
“We wanted to demonstrate the safety, reliability and maturity of our overall system,” said Shawn Kerrigan, co-founder and chief operating officer of the company, in an interview Monday. The company’s system uses cameras, radar and lidar — laser-based technology to help vehicles determine distance — and handled the different terrains and weather conditions such as rain and low visibility well, he said.
The truck, which traveled on interstates 15 and 70 right before Thanksgiving, had to take scheduled breaks but drove mostly autonomously. There were zero “disengagements,” or times the self-driving system had to be suspended because of a problem, Kerrigan said.
Plus.ai has been running freight every week for about a year, its COO said, but this is the first cross-country trip and partnership it has talked about publicly.
End of year is peak butter time, according to Land O’Lakes.
“To be able to address this peak demand with a fuel- and cost-effective freight transport solution will be tremendously valuable to our business,” said Yone Dewberry, the butter maker’s chief supply officer, in a statement.
How long will it be before self-driving trucks are delivering goods regularly across the nation’s highways? Kerrigan thinks it’s “a few years out.”
Dan Ives, managing director of equity research for Wedbush Securities, predicts there will be quite a few autonomous freight-delivery pilots in 2020 and 2021, with the beginning of a commercial rollout in 2022. Like other experts, he believes the trucking industry will be the first to adopt autonomous technology on a mass scale.
The timeline will depend on regulations, which vary state to state, he said.
About 10 to 15 companies nationwide are working on autonomous freight delivery, Ives said. That includes San Francisco-based self-driving truck startup Embark Trucks, which last year completed a five-day, 2,400-mile cross-country trip. But that truck carried no freight.
Why?
There are no dairy cows in Pennsylvania?
Did a self-pumping robot put fuel in the truck's tank?
I've watched a lot of YouTube videos on that. I don't know why, maybe I was bored. But, yeah, how does a self-driving truck take care of some other truck bumping and damaging it. And if the self-driving truck damages property (or injures a person outside) will the self-driving truck stop and assist (or provide medical help)? Truck stop videos are entertaining.
In California; EVERYTHING is!!
We have those now. They are pretty much known as TRAINS!
As a side note: Indianapolis has shut down it's driverless monorail.
Or the gallon jug that has rolled under the seat.
Located or headquartered?
And those handy, wireless phone chargers (Q1 enabled) will be scaled up to truck sized, so that the vehicles can be charged as they drive along.
[We have those now. They are pretty much known as TRAINS!]
Those are MILITARY roads!
Pony Express...
And when they do away with drivers completely what happens if the truck breaks down?
ALL salt is SEA salt!
from a mine? It was left behind when SEA water evaporated long, LONG time ago.
It's the guy behind who should not be tailgating.
He'll slow as well. (Or wish he had!)
There used to be!
Now; all the railbeds are being converted to trails for those with desk jobs to get some exercise.
Why are they even bothering? There will never be cars, much less trucks on the road completely driverless. It is a disaster waiting to happen.
Before I would get excited I would have to see it navigate through Crashville (Nashville)during Rush hour.
“Maximum Overdrive” coming to a truck stop near you
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.