“Tens of thousands” of fully autonomous tractor-trailers are expected to be hauling cargo on public roads in the coming years, with plans to start with 20 driverless trucks in Texas in 2024.
Aurora Innovation Inc. is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company dedicated to innovating self-driving technology. controlled testing CBS News allows 18-wheeler to get safely onto highway before competitors report.
Equipped with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, the truck can “see” obstacles on the road from 400 meters away and switch to the clear lane without any human guidance or intervention.
Since 2021, Aurora trucks have autonomously transported more than 1 million miles of cargo on public roads with a human safety driver on board. Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said there have only been three accidents to date, all of which were caused by mistakes made by human drivers in other vehicles.
“In three to four years, we expect Aurora and its competitors to invest thousands of dollars. [of] “Self-driving trucks are on America’s public highways,” the newspaper said. “The goal is for trucks that can operate 24 hours a day, almost 24 hours a day, to accelerate the flow of goods and reduce delivery times.”
While test drives will only take place on low-speed simulated roads or public roads with human failsafe operators on board, Aurora plans to use 20 driverless trucks to drive roads between Interstate 45 and Dallas in Texas by the end of 2024. The plan is to transport cargo between Houston.
“We want to have thousands or even tens of thousands of trucks on the road,” Urmson said. “And to do that, we have to be safe. That’s the only way to be accepted by the public. Frankly, that’s the only way to be accepted by customers.”
An employee guides an Aurora Innovations driverless truck at the company’s terminal in Palmer, Texas, on December 28, 2023. (Dylan Hollingsworth/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While self-driving technology exists in various forms from automakers such as Tesla and Waymo, Aurora is leading the charge to bring self-driving to the long-haul trucking industry ahead of competitors such as Plus.ai, Gatik, and Kodiak Robotics. They are competing to popularize it. .
According to CBS, Gatic has reported an expected start date of 2024 or 2025, while other companies have not yet announced schedules.
Although technology has advanced, the average American’s mindset about driving on a superhighway at 100 km/h with 80,000 pounds of gravity may still be unacceptable.
According to AAA latest research When it comes to this, most drivers in the United States are either: express Fear (66%) or uncertainty (25%) about fully self-driving cars.
Safety advocates also point out that there is currently “very little federal regulation” for self-driving cars and trucks, and for now it’s up to developers to decide whether their vehicles are safe enough to drive. reported CBS. .
Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies software and self-driving vehicle safety, theorizes that these trucks could be safer, but that computer systems are bound to make mistakes. I’m warning you.
Koopman wonders how companies responsibly make safety decisions when billions of dollars in investments are at stake.
“Everything I see shows they’re trying to do the right thing,” he said. “But the devil is in the details.”
Urmson said Aurora is not in the business of sacrificing safety to make money. The company is not even expected to become profitable until late 2027 or early 2028.
“When you put vehicles on the road that aren’t safe enough and that you don’t have confidence in, it undermines everything else,” the CEO said publicly in March.
He also predicted that driverless trucks will complement human drivers rather than replace them.
“If you’re driving a truck now, my hope is that you’ll be able to retire from driving a truck,” Urmson said.
