Most people know Uber as the company that makes the platform which enables you to easily get a ride using just your smartphone. The company is about a lot more than that.
In fact they are working on self-driving cars and it also has a company that’s working on self-driving trucks. Otto is Uber’s self-driving truck company, which has announced that its autonomous big rig has driven 120 miles to complete “the world’s first shipment by a self-driving truck.”
What did it ship? Well, it transported 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer from Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs. This route along Interstate 25 is about 120 miles, however, the truck didn’t drive all the way on its own. The truck was driven by a human driver from a depot in Anheuer-Busch to a weigh station in Fort Collins. The self-driving system was deployed after that and it drove the truck for about 100 miles without requiring a human driver. The driver did take over when the truck entered the city to complete the last leg. That’s still pretty impressive. It’snice to know that our beer is in good hands.
Self-driving trucks may just help improve efficiency as well as cutting logistics costs for companies across the globe. Pretty soon we will be seeing them everywhere on the roads.
Source Ubergizmo