A semi-trailer truck loaded with beer circulated without the driver on highway I-25, Colorado last week. Uber Technologies Inc. and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is associated to the delivery, and, as they say, is the first time that a truck standalone is used for a dispatch business.
With a patrolman as an escort, the trailer traveled over 120 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) while the driver rested in the rear, in the cabin bedroom. The delivery is more of an advertising strategy, proof that Otto, the company’s autonomous vehicles that Uber bought in July, I could put in the way, with total success, a truck without a driver.
"we Wanted to show that the building blocks of the technology are here: we have the capacity to do so on a road", said Lior Ron, president and co-founder of the unit Otto Uber. "We are still in the development stages, testing hardware and software".
AB InBev said that it could save US$ 50 million per year in the united States if the drinks giant could use trucks that are autonomous in their distribution network, even when drivers continue driving in the vehicles and complementing the technology. Those savings would come from lower fuel costs and a schedule with higher frequency of deliveries.
to Test the feasibility of the truck self-employed has become a more important matter in the eyes of the public and the regulators. The surveys show that the majority of americans do not trust the technology, to which the trucking industry is particularly sensitive. While the fatalities in the sector far exceed those that occur in other industries and thus could benefit from a greater security, the sector of transport trucks, gave work to 1.5 million people in September, and those jobs may be threatened by the autonomous vehicles.
The death in may of a driver who was using the autopilot system of Tesla Motors Inc. attracted the political interest in autonomous vehicles and rushed orders regulations to be at the height of technological advances. The Department of Transportation of the united States disseminated instructions for the movement of autonomous vehicles, which support the potential to save lives that have the technology at the time to warn you about a world of "human guinea Pigs".
The team Otto Uber worked with regulators in Colorado to obtain permission for the delivery and arrange to have the police supervision of the shipment, said Ron. Otto spent two weeks studying the route from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, tracing carefully the way to ensure that the technology could with him. In addition, the team wished that the trip would take place early in the morning when there is less traffic and on a day with good weather conditions, conditions, both of which were met last Thursday, on the day of delivery.
Ron said that Uber does not plan to manufacture its own trucks, but rather seeks to partner with automotive, as it is doing with Volvo in the field of automobiles, the self-employed. He added that the discussions of the company with truck manufacturers are in early stages.
Also the software has a long way to go. The experience in Colorado was limited to the highway, which means that truckers should not have to worry about finding another job soon. "The focus has been and will be the highway. More than 95 percent of the hours of operation take place on highways," said Ron. "Even in the future, when we make more, we’ll continue thinking that you need a driver to monitor the vehicle".