On a three-lane track near the Monongahela River, a tractor-trailer was tried to see how well it could drive itself.
The truck easily avoided a trash can that was blocking a lane by going around corners and crossing lanes. Twenty-five laser, radar, and camera sensors are built into the self-driving automatic tractor-trailer to help it do its job. A company called Aurora Innovation in Pittsburgh owns it, and it should start carrying freight later this year. Twenty self-driving trucks will be enough for the company to start. They will run along Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston.
In the next few years, Aurora plans to have thousands of self-driving trucks on the roads of the United States. The company’s main goal with self-driving tractor-trailers is to speed up the flow of things by letting them move around the clock. This will cut down on delivery times.
A car that weighs 80,000 pounds going 80 miles per hour next to you on the highway isn’t something that many people would want. In fact, more than 65% of Americans said they would be scared to ride in a self-driving car.
Though, Aurora has been testing their self-driving trucks for seven years, and soon they will be ready for real use. Trucks that don’t need drivers will then take cargo between ports for Uber Freight, FedEx, Werner, and other partners.
A lot of people are very worried about safety, and some say that the lack of government rules could put other drivers in danger. Aurora replied that their tests will show that self-driving cars are safer than cars driven by people. They said that radars give a much wider range than a human eye could see and that drivers would not have any problems if they got sidetracked, drunk, or fell asleep while driving.
Our CEO, Chris Urmson, said, “We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road.” “But we need to be safe to do that.” People will only agree with you if you do that. Truly, that’s the only way our clients will agree with it.”
