Uber Is Testing Self-Driving Trucks In Arizona And They Look Pretty Normal
Uber announced Tuesday that it's now testing a fleet of self-driving trucks in Arizona under its Uber Freight brand, which connects shippers with truckers… or now, just trucks.
Like other self-driving test fleets, the trucks will have human drivers behind the wheel.
In an introductory video, highlighting the trucks (which are unremarkable besides the presence of a spinning laser headpiece), Uber showcases an example of what they will envision will become the future of trucking. A first short leg, driven by a human, will occur from the shipping location to a transfer point. Then, a load transfer will occur, and a self-driving truck will complete the long-haul to another transfer point, where the load will be picked up by another human driver.
Uber says its technology isn't advanced enough yet to complete the complex turns and maneuvers required to begin and end a trucking route, but their technology can handle the long stretches of road in the middle.
Uber has invested significantly in its self-driving ventures, acquiring the self-driving truck start-up Otto for $650 million in 2016, and then dropping $254 million to settle a lawsuit with Google's self-driving venture Waymo. Uber has also been spending money to test self-driving cars in Arizona, whose lax driving laws facilitate the experiments.
