You might know Uber as the company that makes the platform which enables you to easily hail a ride using your smartphone. Uber is working on so much more than just its platform that connects riders with drivers. The company is working hard on self-driving cars and it also has a company under its belt that’s working on self-driving trucks. Otto, Uber’s self-driving truck company, has now announced that its autonomous big rig has driven 120 miles in what is “the world’s first shipment by a self-driving truck.”
The first shipment on a self-driving truck involved transporting 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer from Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs. The route along the Interstate 25 is around 120 miles, the truck didn’t actually drove all the way on its own.
Otto’s truck was actually driven by a human driver from a depot in Anheuer-Busch to a weigh station in Fort Collins. The self-driving system was deployed only after that and it drove the truck for about 100 miles without requiring any assistance from the human driver. The driver only took over when the truck entered the city to complete the final maneuvers.
Uber isn’t the only company that’s working on self-driving big rigs. Many conventional car companies have had the same idea, they think that self-driving trucks will go a long way in improving efficiency as well as cutting logistics costs for companies across the globe.
Filed in . Read more about Self Driving and Uber. Source: engadget