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Daimler Tests a Self-Driving Truck On the Autobahn
Engadget reports that Daimler has tested an autonomous truck in one environment guaranteed to put stress on any car: the German Autobahn. While the Mercedes Actros truck was guided with a mix of "radar, a stereo camera array and off-the-shelf systems like adaptive cruise control," there was a human crew on hand, too, just in case. From the article: This doesn't mean you'll see fleets of robotic trucks in the near future. Daimler had to get permission for this run, and the law (whether European or otherwise) still isn't equipped to permit regular autonomous driving of any sort, let alone for giant cargo haulers. Still, this could make a better case for approving some form of self-driving transportation.
The article's a bit short on details, but this is where I expect autonomous driving to take off first--long-haul trucking. Controlled-access highways present fewer complications like pedestrians, four-way stops, and the like, and I imagine automating that would take care of 80% of the driving. Even if you still needed a human driver to reel 'er in at the warehouse gates or even the city limits, it still strikes me as a huge improvement.
Laws and liability are going to be the biggest limiting factor to commercial deployment, especially if they boil down to "a human must be ready to intervene at any time," but I think there are fudges around that. You could have one human operator in a remote control center "driving" multiple trucks, kind of like a cross between drone pilot and remote ICU monitoring.
Not that even a human sitting in the seat with hands on the wheel would be likely to intervene effectively should something go wrong after eight hours of idle monotony. But, having a human somewhere supervising in some capacity would soothe the more irrational fears that also serve as part of the reason we still keep human pilots flying planes, while still yielding the benefits that come with automation--self-driving trucks are much less compelling if each one still needs a full-time human driver to comply with laws.
DATABASE WOW WOW
It's not a substitute, it's a complement.
A truck goes exactly where you need it to go, not some hub somewhere where you have to send it out by truck for 100 more miles anyway... You simply cannot do that with trains.
Even though freight trains will still be around because of massive hauling capacity, you would STILL need a robust trucking infrastructure just to handle the "last few hundred miles" needs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Automated trucks without any drivers? Sounds like a hijackers dream!
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
So All I need a cell jamer and I can DDOS you full rail line?
"This doesn't mean you'll see fleets of robotic trucks in the near future."
Yes it will. And these idiots are the ones who will make it happen.
First the robots came for the truckers, and I said nothing because I wasn't a trucker...
The prostitutes at the truck stops aren't going to get much business from a self driving truck.