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Uber Self-Driving Trucks Are Now Moving Cargo For Uber Freight Customers (techcrunch.com)
Uber's autonomous trucks are now being put to work via Uber Freight, Uber's commercial cargo shipping on-demand app. "The first runs are being done in Arizona, with regular hauls operating with both human drivers and autonomous trucks working in tandem," reports TechCrunch. From the report: How it works is that Uber will load up the freight on a conventional, human driven truck who collects the load from the shipper and then does a short haul run to a transfer hub. The short haul truck then loads its cargo onto a long-haul freight transport, which is autonomous for the purposes of these trips. That self-driving test truck handles the highway driving for the longer portion of the trip, handing it off once again to a human-driven trip for the short haul cap to the overall journey. Uber Freight handles the load sourcing, just as it dos for connecting shippers with regular human truckers. Uber's Advanced Technology Group is simply deploying its self-driving trucks on the Uber Freight platform, in the same way that the autonomous team within Uber is using the Uber ride-hailing network to test and deploy its self-driving ride share vehicles. Uber has released a video depicting this journey.
This is total BS. They are not doing this. Autonomous driving is not at this level yet. Complete garbage.
Never ever be confused by the difference between lower costs and lower charges, one hardly ever leads to the other and that is the purposeful function of public relations and marketing, the ability to confuse the gullible. Corporations charge the maximum they can only limited by diminishing returns with higher profit margins, the cost versus the charges. Ideally as seen in modern governance, they want tax payers to foot the bill for the costs and then charge infinite profit margins, infinite because say like the F35 Flying Pig, the final purchase leads to the goal of the aircraft being declared unsatisfactory, blame government controlled by those corporations and buying a new replacement (they seem to be pushing the M$ model where every second version is utter trash requiring replacement at your cost).
The modern trend if for more skilled drivers, that place their equipment appropriate after getting it to site safely and then unloading it themselves to the right location. Auto trucks at this stage, lets be economically honest, are an IPO tool, to make the company look like it is worth more than it is.
Always keep in mind the cargo will often be worth more than the truck and not just the cargo itself but delays in delivery. All sorts of things can stop an auto truck cold, one detector slightly faulty and someone's cargo is dead on the side of a road, depending how far away, that can mean dead for days and delays can cost way, way more than a truck driver. How well does autodrive work in muddy conditions, where there is a high likelihood of obscuring detectors and if not mud how about snow.
Any perceived saving, after already adding in higher capital cost, can be goobled right up in penalties for lost cargo and if the turkey vultures at Uber think they can scam commercial operators like they do the gullible public, well, they will be bankrupted into oblivion via civil suits. In commercial cargo operations it is all about the cargo, undamaged and on time, no whoops star rating, straight to court rating and clauses like, we take no responsibility for safe delivery of cargo, blacked out by highlighter and initialled or the contract binned.
Uber makes new announcement to pretty up company prior to IPO, believe nothing.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Why don't you tell me how you REALLY feel?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
If there's any serious threat they'll fold the corporation and pay out little or nothing. Then they'll 're-open' on paper without so much as a name change. That's if they don't just keep the lawsuit going until the parties settle out of desperation or die of old age.
We're a country that poisoned out air for 50 years so our engines wouldn't knock. Autonomous vehicles have so much profit potential that nothing is going to stop them. A few highway fatalities here and there certainly aren't.
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The sad thing is that even as incomplete and failure prone as these systems are, THEY'RE BETTER THAN THE MAJORITY OF DRIVERS OUT THERE who are too tired, too distracted, too conceited and in too much of a hurry.
> I've not seen a single photo or video of an actual self driving vehicle operating on it's own because the technology is still in development.
The technology is still in development, but that shouldn't lead you to believe the humans are driving them. For the test cars they are there in case of an emergency but doing very little driving. Waymo/Google has clocked 5 million autonomous miles.
If you live in Phoenix and want to ride in an a meatless Waymo (uber-killer) taxi you can apply here for the beta. https://waymo.com/apply/
People are starting to post videos of them in the wild. e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
This is a technology creeping towards the tipping point. My bet is that we've grossly underestimated the impact of the technology.
a T&C statement is not necessarily binding in all jurisdictions.
When Tesla says that you must be fully attentive, with hands on the wheel at all times and not rely on autopilot to drive for you, those are not terms and conditions. They're operating instructions. If I put a metal dish in my microwave, and it is damaged as a result, I'm out of luck. The microwave may have still operated (for a time) when I put something in it that the instructions say it isn't meant to handle, but that does not mean the use was appropriate or reasonable. Similar concept here. Intentionally using a device/machine contrary to explicit operating instructions, then suing when something bad happens typically does not go very well for the plaintiff.