Posted on 01/21/2022 4:20:51 PM PST by Callahan
A giant 18-wheel transport truck is barreling down a multi-lane Texas highway, and there is no one behind the wheel.
The futuristic idea may seem surreal, but it is being tested in this vast southern US state, which has become the epicenter of a rapidly developing self-driving vehicle industry.
Before driverless trucks are allowed onto roads and highways, however, multiple tests must still be conducted to ensure they are safe.…
In 2018, Texas passed a law that essentially gave autonomous cars the same status as conventional vehicles.
"You need insurance and you need to follow the rules of the road, but other than that Texas does not impose any other regulations," says Saripalli.
With the United States so vast and trucking such a vital part of its economy, companies see self-driving as a way to cut costs and reduce risk, since unlike with human drivers autonomous vehicles don't get tired and don't require mandatory breaks.
While it will take a person three days to drive a truck from Los Angeles to Dallas, a self-driving big rig will complete the journey in 24 hours, estimates Aurora.…
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I’m going out on a limb here. Two years ago I would have
thought self driving cars was a development nobody wanted.
Now it seems to be something they just can’t get along
without.
I DO NOT like the idea of autonomous vehicles driving around
with no human on board.
It’s just one more way to displace U. S. workers.
It will also be used to limit our travel and freedoms.
The government wants to monitor us every single second,
and this is going to make that easier > IMO.
For Person-less Thieves ?
Can anyone explain how it gets refueled????????
Railroads can’t make it work right. I have my doubts about this.
When self driving vehicles kill people everyone from the politician, to the CEO, to the engineer need to be tried for murder, senseless murder.
More Yahoo BS - the insurance companies have not given approval for driverless trucks - still way too many bugs to work out.
The American Trucking Association says not before 2025.
“Can anyone explain how it gets refueled????????”
Pushed forward by vehicles behind it?
Saw these out west last year. Can’t remember the company operating them
I’m sure no sabotage will take place in the future.
And when one of those Trucks cause a mass casualty event then there will be no criminal liability no matter what happened.
“While it will take a person three days to drive a truck from Los Angeles to Dallas, a self-driving big rig will complete the journey in 24 hours, estimates Aurora.…”
So how much less expesnsive are these trucks compared to hiring a second driver so the truck could drive almost straight through?
The unattended robotic fueling should be interesting also...
What could go wrong?
Most commercial airlines don't actually need pilots on board, but people for some reason actually want to be airborne bus drivers and passengers believe that pilots are somehow safer than robots under normal flying conditions. A lot of point-to-point long haul trucking can probably be remotely controlled as well and there aren't enough drivers to keep up with demand. It's repetitive stuff, it could be arranged to occur at low traffic times around populated areas, and convoys could deliver massive amounts of goods more efficiently. point-to-point OTR routes could be remotely monitored, and big carriers could handle the growing pains of figuring out how to insure and run the routes. There are some assumptions of course, there's an expectation that the trucks wouldn't be attacked or harassed, which isn't a safe assumption, and there's inevitably going to be an accident at some point, how big a pain those accidents are to clean up (imagine a convoy of twenty trailers all wrecking at once in an isolated cut through some hillside), will fuel the adoption rate.
I think there will be a need for human truckers for a long time, but when the robot trucker start taking over, it's going to be those supplier to distribution point routes across the barrel areas of the Midwest where it happens first.
Thieves’ paradise.
Might be a safety improvement on the thousands of mexican and pakistani drivers on the road...
Alexa, reroute this semi full of valuable stuff to my warehouse on the bad side of town....
(NY and CA notwithstanding)
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