The world now includes a technology that raises the stakes of the collective interest in self-driving cars to a whole new weight class: a self-driving big rig.
"[On May 5], atop the Hoover Dam, Freightliner unveiled the Inspiration Truck — a partially autonomous big rig that could save lives, mitigate driver fatigue and stress, and reduce CO2 emissions up to 5 percent," reports Sean O'Kane.
Daimler, the owner of Freightliner, claims that they have already put 10,000 miles of test miles on the car, which has paved the way for the vehicle's new street-legal status, "having been officially granted one of Nevada's "Autonomous Vehicle" license plates (the first for a commercial truck) by Nevada governor Brian Sandoval at a media event before the unveiling.
O'Kane notes that the Inspiration Truck, as its called, and the "highway Pilot" technology it relies on is not meant to entirely replace truck drivers. "Instead, it's meant to solve the problem of fatigued driving, something that plagues truck drivers who have to pull long shifts. According to Daimler, 90 percent of truck crashes result from driver error, and in one out of every eight of those cases driver fatigue plays a role." The truck currently achieves a "level 3" on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's automation scale—the same level currently achieved by Google's self-driving car, according to O'Kane.
The article includes more detail about the current capabilities of the truck and its potential as well as picture of the truck at work at the big reveal.
Joseph Stromberg followed the news of the big reveal to explain why driverless trucks are more likely to be seen on highways sooner than droves of driverless cars on city streets.
FULL STORY: This is the first road-legal big rig that can drive itself
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