Uber also began testing trucks with autopilot

16 March 2018

The competition in this area intensifies

Not only Waymo is engaged in the development of unmanned trucks in the same direction runs and Uber. This company is known mainly as an aggregator of taxi, but it is not the first year experimenting with drones.

It is noteworthy that Uber also brought prototypes of "smart" trucks on the road Arizona (ibid ride and unmanned trucks Waymo). At this stage they are able to do without the help of a man on the road, but maneuvering in the loading Bay until carries trucker. He sits in the cockpit during the trip because of the activities of a computer while you want to watch.

The new direction is the service of commercial transportation of goods Freight, Uber, launched less than a year ago. In order to use its services, you must install the mobile app Uber and Freight request: the system works by analogy with the passenger transportation Uber.

In the American companies claim that the introduction of autopilots is designed to reduce the burden on truckers, and not to deprive them of work. "truck Drivers would make the standard for professionals this kind of task, but only when the situation requires. Tasks will be the following: sunset station, navigation uploaded by other cars platform and performing complex maneuvers", — noted in the management of Uber.

Ultimately, however, Uber is still committed to completely replace the drivers with computers. In the end, the autopilot can round the clock to drive a truck, moreover, it does not happen in a hospital, not satisfied with the accident and doesn't even require a salary.

The author of the book A Dangerous Master: How to Keep Technology from Slipping Beyond our Control ("a Dangerous master: how not to allow the technology to escape from our control") Wendell Wallach (Wendell Wallach) has estimated that in the future ten years, about 14,000 American truckers will lose their jobs.

The exact timing of the emergence of fully Autonomous trucks, Uber, were not disclosed.