Waymo is testing the feasibility of putting its self-driving tech into semi trucks

[Shawn Knight]

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle development firm from Google parent company Alphabet, is exploring how its self-driving technology could impact the cargo trucking industry.

The company said in an e-mailed statement to BuzzFeed that 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. As such, Waymo is taking its eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a “technical exploration” into how the tech can integrate into a truck.

The testing, being conducted at a private track somewhere in California according to Forbes, is said to involve the use of a single Peterbilt Class 8 semi-truck with a human driver behind the wheel at all times. The company apparently declined to specify the location of the test track nor would it share exactly when it plans to conduct road tests in Arizona, only saying that it would happen “later this year.”

Waymo is in the middle of a legal battle with Uber. As the story goes, former Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski left the company to create a self-driving truck company called Otto which was subsequently acquired by Uber. Waymo claims that Levandowski and other former Google employees stole Waymo trade secrets and used them to help get Otto off the ground.

Uber fired Levandowski earlier this week.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69557-waymo-testing-feasibility-putting-self-driving-tech-semi.html

 

[psycros]

Laughable. Trailer truck driving is the most demanding kind of over-the-road driving there is. Drivers are expected to not only keep their rig intact but get away with speeding as much as possible while endangering other drivers as little as possible. The only way automated rigs would ever catch on is if the money saved from eliminating driver jobs exceeded the higher costs of rigs being forced to obey speed limits and traffic laws.

 

[Uncle Al]

One of the more sensible concepts I have read about is the idea of having a separate 3rd lane for these vehicles, that would drive a bit slower. The primary challenge has to be navigation through narrow streets and backing into loading docks. Not insurmountable, but as of yet, not yet resolved. And unloading? Well, that will take a lot more effort and companies will have to segregate their boxed goods to eliminate issues at the destination. For bulk liquids and single product cargo's it would work very well. But efforts for an all electric truck by Musk simply aren't going to pan out until they develop a much longer range, heavy duty battery for pulling maximum loads.