Autonomous truck, a project of four former employeesancGoogle

autonomous cars already miniThey are currently plying the roads in test traffic, and if we consider Tesla with the latest software update to be at least partially autonomous, then we are already seeing them in regular traffic. However, such an autonomous truck is a real novelty, the development of which is being carried out by a team of former Google engineers.

The main messiah in this case is Lior Ron, the former leader of the project Google Maps, assisted by former Google autonomous vehicle developer Anthony Levandowski. This group of engineers, along with other friends and now employees,anci took a Volvo VNL 780 truck and stuffed it with the latest technologies that will allow the vehicle to be fully autonomous. The truck is not intended to park precisely in a depot or weave through city streets, its goal is to take over highway traffic for the driver.

"About half of truck drivers spend up to 200 nights a year away from home, sleeping in parking lots and rest areas. Due to federal regulations, a truck driver must drive maxat least 11 hours a day, after 10 hours the risk of accidents increasesone"If we manage to complete the project according to our ideas, driving will be safe and at the same time the capacity and utilization of trucks will double," Lior Ron told Backchannel magazine.

We will see if the Otto project, as the effort to create the first autonomous truck is called, will manage to overcome all the technological obstacles and then fight with the legislative ones as well. If so, then suppliers, drivers and customers can rest easy.