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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Wednesday, September 11, 2024

On a sunny morning in December, an 18-wheeler will pull into a truck depot in Palmer, Texas, just south of Dallas. The driver will step out of the cab and help transfer his trailer to a second rig outfitted with powerful sensors.

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... This second truck will head south on Interstate 45 toward Houston. It will move cautiously, mostly cruising in the right lane at 65 mph despite the 75 mph speed limit.

After three and a half hours, the truck will exit the freeway in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in the north of Houston. It will proceed to a second truck depot, where the trailer will again be transferred to a new rig. A different driver will get in and haul the cargo to its final destination a few miles away.

Trucks travel the 200 miles between Dallas and Houston all the time. But there will be something special about the middle leg of this trip: There will be no one in the vehicle.

A startup called Aurora has spent seven years"and hundreds of millions of dollars"preparing for this driverless trip, which it hopes to complete before the end of the year. Last month, I met with Aurora cofounder Sterling Anderson at the company's office in Mountain View, California.

The office has glass-walled conference rooms and row after row of workstations. But it also has some things you won't find at a typical Silicon Valley startup. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2024-09-11 06:34 PM | Reply

They must have come up with an 'acceptable death rate' with their insurance companies, because this isn't going to be pretty when the inevitable tragic deaths occur from these beasts getting out of control in some circumstances, at least initially.

#2 | Posted by Corky at 2024-09-11 10:05 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

I believe this prediction to be overly ambitious.

#3 | Posted by Angrydad at 2024-09-11 10:36 PM | Reply

The cl0wns have been using a "driverless candidate" for nearly a decade... it will be what it will be.

#4 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2024-09-12 09:45 AM | Reply

Wow-they haven't been able to make a driver-less passenger vehicle that didn't crash-now a freaking semi?

#5 | Posted by Yodagirl at 2024-09-12 11:02 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

I will believe it when I see it. We were going to be here "at the latest" 3 years ago about 7 years ago.

#6 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2024-09-12 12:00 PM | Reply

Great ... convoys of Doom on the highways but still no flying car in my garage.

#7 | Posted by donnerboy at 2024-09-12 12:56 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

They've been talking about this for years now.

What I've wondered, how's it going to negotiate and evaluate rain, snow, ice patches, black ice? Sometimes you just have to pull it over and shut it down and wait it out. How does it put out orange warning triangles after you breakdown? The brakes catch fire? A human can put it out with a fire extinguisher
(like I did once).Or when you blow an engine, does it know to coast to the shoulder and get it off the road safely(like I did once).Render assistance to people after an accident. Call 911 to report a drunk driver etc.

I've got a lot of questions.

#8 | Posted by shane at 2024-09-12 01:44 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

"They've been talking about this for years now."

Decades, even. I reckon these things will only be feasible en masse if they build highways for them, or there's someone remotely monitoring the vehicles constantly.

#9 | Posted by sentinel at 2024-09-12 07:29 PM | Reply

*just for them

#10 | Posted by sentinel at 2024-09-12 07:30 PM | Reply

They better paint these Mother Clucking Trucks bright orange or something,
to let all the drivers know instantly which ones are on autopilot, because
I don't want to be near the things...

#11 | Posted by earthmuse at 2024-09-13 06:48 AM | Reply

I think that it's insane to put driverless vehicles on the road; especially considering the current state of the technology, the ever changing condition of our roads and the unpredictability of many drivers. There is an alternative solution for carrying freight without human intervention and that is via rail: Parallel Systems

moveparallel.com

#12 | Posted by FedUpWithPols at 2024-09-13 07:25 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Such tucks will never cross the Okiehomie state line--the roads are not safe enough...

#13 | Posted by catdog at 2024-09-13 09:33 AM | Reply

Cripes, they won't allow the railroads to go with driver-less trains, and they're on rails and STILL have accidents!

#14 | Posted by Yodagirl at 2024-09-13 11:05 AM | Reply

As long as they don't park in the fuel isle to take a 40min dump whilst making loud grunting noises I'm fine with it.

I'm no Luddite. I think humans can and will do everything given enough time and resources. But self driving semis is really dumb even if we could somehow figure out the whole -who's liable- question. Dumb for all the reasons Shaun pointed out plus at least 100 more. And this isn't some quest for the the benefit of all mankind. It's so JB Hunt, CR England and Swift can save a nickel and have something to trade when truckers get smart enough to unionize.

I'm curious though, Shaun, given the choice between an AI driver, a well trained gibbon in a long nose Pete or a guy in a turban with a clapped out 15 year old white Volvo ...
Which is preferable?

#15 | Posted by BluSky at 2024-09-13 11:07 AM | Reply

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