We’re just starting to get used to autonomous taxis taking us from place to place, and if a few tech companies have their way, the next milestone will be autonomous trucks making the country run.
Bloomberg reports three startup firms — Aurora Innovation Inc., Kodiak Robotics Inc. and Gatik AI Inc. — are ready to dismiss the human safety drivers from their big rigs, and leave the driving to the array of sensors and software as part of a program on the highways of Texas.
The publication says such tech-laden trucks have already hauled cargo successfully for companies, including Walmart and FedEx, but with human drivers aboard just in case. Aurora’s co-founder Chris Urmson says his vehicles will be ready to roll on their own “by the end of the year.”
However, speed bumps exist. Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, is “concerned … about the lack of regulation … transparency, [and] … the lack of comprehensive data collection.”
Also opposed, as one might expect, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that represents 1.3 million (human) truck drivers and warehouse workers.
In addition, there have been hiccups with driverless taxi programs: California suspended the operations of Cruise auto-driving taxis after some of the bots got tangled in San Francisco’s windy, pedestrian-heavy streets.
Still, proponents of the driverless trucks say highways are free of unpredictable pedestrians and bicycle riders, and trucks are mostly charged with getting stuff from point to point, making autonomous driving more clear cut.
While there are myriad technical challenges to sort through before robot trucks are common, one question remains: Will robot truck drivers know to honk the horn when kids in passing cars pump their fists?