Self-driving trucks publicly hit the roads

Self-driving vehicles have finally hit the roads, as a self-driving truck recently completed a successful drive from Los Angeles to Florida.

The autonomous trucking company Embark had one of its self-driving trucks complete a 2,400 mile trip with minimal human contact. The trip took five days to complete with scheduled rest breaks included. Human drivers were also on board all set to take the wheel in case of any mishap.

According to Tech Crunch, the company’s autonomous structure uses senor data and machine learning technology instead of any high-resolution route maps like many other autonomous vehicles do. This technique helps to cut down the costs and the time required. The sensors on-board map the surroundings in real-time and avoid obstacles, as compared to other self-driving vehicles that pre-map the routes.

Video Credits: Embark

After autonomous cars, company launches self-driving trucks

The ‘sensor suite’ in the truck consists of five cameras out of which three are long-range radar and the other two are ‘lidars’ – light detection and ranging sensors.

Regarding the human intervention, the on-board drivers claimed that the ‘vast majority of the driving was autonomous’. Talking about the disengagements, the team said that there were no disengagements for hours and even when they did occur, they lasted only for a few seconds.

The company’s CEO Alex Rodrigues informed that in future, Embark aims to have 40 trucks in its fleet by the year end. According to Engadget, the company asserts that the aim of these self-driving trucks is not to replace human drivers, but is meant to deal with the growing number of driver shortages. The company also expects that as soon as the trucks are completely ready, the trip will take only two days instead of five.