The coming of self driving cars and trucks has long been forecast, but is it actually closer now?
“Aurora will begin using the Volvo VNL Autonomous in the next few months as it hauls freight, with human “safety drivers” ready to take over if the need arises. However, by the end of the year, the company plans to have up to 20 road-plying, freight-hauling, robo-semis in 2025. According to TechCrunch , this fleet will be fully autonomous, operating between Houston and Dallas, with no human in the cab.”
It seems to be closer than the “two or three” years that were mentioned decades ago.
If that did turn out to be true, it would probably only be due to the standard of non-automated driving having fallen even further below the level it is at today.
this morning i saw a fine example of driving. some silly cow tried to turn left into a wall not happy with that she then reversed straight back out across the road drove a yard or two back up the road then did a 3 point turn so facing back down the road the way she was. To top it off she then decided to get into the right turn only lane and turn left on a red light.
i doubt it will be safer we just dont have the technology. even auto pilot on aircraft drops out when it cant cope.
However all that will happen is the human driver will be blamed for all accidents and the gullible will swallow it hook line and sinker… bit like all the ev cobblers
“Aircraft autopilot” covers a very wide range of technologies and systems, from simple height/speed/direction up to autoland systems. A bit like comparing a simple cruise control with a Tesla system.As fitted, they weren’t intended to be fully autonomous, but some are getting there.
No need to be panicking yet, Go look at Google Maps at the roads between Houston and Dallas. Route 45 is basically a fairly flat long dual carriageway for a lot of it with very little challenging and traffic levels mostly light. It’s a far cry from the M1, M4, M6, M25, M42, M62 etc.
) but I think that automation will lead to safer transport.