With 80,000 pounds of cargo, 18 wheels and no driver — what could possibly go wrong?
To some, an autonomous semi-trailer might conjure images of a rampaging truck from Stephen King’s 1986 horror flick “Maximum Overdrive.”
But Anthony Levandowski, a robot aficionado who helped steer Google’s self-driving technology, believes big rigs also are up to the task and will actually help foster a safer transportation system.
Levandowski left Google this year to pursue his vision at Otto, a San Francisco startup he co-founded with two other former employees of the search engine giant, Lior Ron and Don Burnette, and another robotics expert, Claire Delaunay.
Otto hopes to equip trucks with software, sensors, lasers and cameras that will allow them to cover the more than 220,000 miles of US highways on their own — allowing a human driver to rest or handle other tasks.
For now, robots would take the wheel on the highways, leaving humans to navigate city streets.
“Our goal is to make trucks drive as humanly as possible, but with the reliability of machines,” Levandowski said.
It will likely take decades for robots to take over for human drivers, predicts Steven Shladover, program manager for mobility at the University of California’s Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology.
“I don’t want to be on that highway when there is nobody there to take over a truck with 80,000 pounds of cargo and I don’t think I know anyone else who would want to be,” Shladover said. “The consequences of any kind of failure in any component would be too severe.”
So far, Google’s self-driving cars have logged about 1.6 million miles in autonomous mode without being involved in a fatal accident or one that resulted in major injuries.
Otto is seeking 1,000 truckers to volunteer to have self-driving kits installed on their rigs, at no cost, to help fine-tune the technology. The truckers would still be expected to seize the wheel if the technology fails or if driving conditions become dangerous.
“It’s really silly to have a person steering a truck for eight hours just to keep it between two lines on the highway,” Levandowski said.
With Post wires