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Uber's Self-Driving Trucks Division Is Dead (techcrunch.com)
Uber is shuttering its self-driving unit, reports TechCrunch. The company will reportedly stop development of self-driving trucks and instead focus its efforts on self-driving cars. "We recently took the important step of returning to public roads in Pittsburgh, and as we look to continue that momentum, we believe having our entire team's energy and expertise focused on this effort is the best path forward," Eric Meyhofer, head of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, said in an emailed statement. From the report: Uber Freight, a business unit that helps truck drivers connect with shipping companies, is unaffected by this decision. "Rather than having two groups working side by side, focused on different vehicle platforms, I want us instead collaborating as one team, according to an email reviewed by TechCrunch that was sent by Meyhofer to employees. "I know we're all super proud of what the Trucks team has accomplished, and we continue to see the incredible promise of self-driving technology applied to moving freight across the country. But we believe delivering on self-driving for passenger applications first, and then bringing it to freight applications down the line, is the best path forward. For now, we need the focus of one team, with one clear objective." The company will pivot employees focused on self-driving trucks to other work that revolves around self-driving technology.
Is this Otto, the company Uber bought for $680 Million?
Good job guys!!
so now they kill the self driving truck company
Sure, we all know that *BSD is a failure, but why? Why did *BSD die? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 20 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD effectively lost all of its market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personas?
The record is unambiguously clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.
Fact: It's dead, Jim.
I have no citations to present but I think they are going about it backwards. Concentrate on the long haul trucks and the shipping industry, then leverage that know how and experience into self driving cars. The behaviors and needs of big trucks seems more predictable, the trucking industry seem more receptive and more likely to finance and adopt the technology. Then after having success there they can spread to other areas.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
One would think automated delivery truck would be much easier; they go between some loading dock and some other loading dock, not random street corners. And deliveries are made in the early hours of the morning when there's much less traffic.
They know they'll never develop viable self-driving technology.
They need to keep pretending they can, as it's the end-goal to turn a profit on their main business, ride-sharing.
They'll lose investors if they give up on that. The company is still running at a loss, without constant investment it's going to collapse.
...it has simply hit a wall. *rimshot*
I'll see myself out. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Translation: "the path to making this stuff work is a lot harder than we thought. So the path to profits is a waaaaays out. So, we're going to "combine" these units, and expect us to dribble out layoffs as we 'realize synergies' "
Shitty excuse for AI is shitty
Can't think like a human being
Doesn't know the difference between a lamppost and a living creature, it's all just 'objects'
Has to 'phone home' regularly because it's 'decision trees' can't handle everything -- because it can't actually THINK
Can't go off-road
Will be easy to remotely hijack; a new form of kidnapping will emerge
Will be easy to remotely hijack; terrorists won't have to be suicide bombers anymore
Will be easy to remotely hijack; overreaching police and governments will be able to dictate when and where people go
..and the list goes on, and on, and on. You're a FOOL if you want anything to do with this destructive, deadly, anti-human 'technology'.
The link in that article goes to goldseek.com, which has dick all to do with Uber trucks.
What is going on here? Are that many people really ranting without clicking on the link, or has it been subsequently hacked?
I don't work for Uber, and I don't care about their bottom line. But I do care about progress and automation. The way I read this Slashdot story, it seems like Uber is not telling us the whole story. Shouldn't automated cartage be potentially very lucrative in the near future? I can easily see automated taxi trucks hauling loads over short distances to less expensive and more efficient shipping points.
I don't think Uber is playing straight with us. Anyway it's their loss. Competition will enter the marketplace, if it hasn't already. Sooner, rather than later, another company with less experience in online marketing will be front runners in the business of online cartage, and get there first, while Uber was, at one time, first in the online taxi business, hauling human freight over short distances.
One question I'd like to see answered, is what United Auto Workers and other Unions have to say about automated trucking. Maybe that's the untold story behind the story. We already know what taxi drivers think about Uber: the same that hoteliers think about AirBnB ---- get lost, hahaha.
I'm sure a lot of people would be just fine if merely 80% of their driving needs were automatable, or their truck drove itself 80% of the way while they napped.
Very few humans can do 100% of all driving tasks too (our accident rate is proof of that). Self-driving cars may never be perfect, but they're already good enough today for Waymo's taxis to be carrying unaccompanied passengers in Phoenix as we speak.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Hopefully, with self-driving cars, you won't get one that will sit there and never drive to you hoping that you will cancel and he will get the $5 cancelation fee or scam you with the vomit scam.
That means fewer people will be.
And before you rant about how autonomous cars and trucks will save lives because human drivers suck, I agree. I just want competent companies building them, not Uber.