Uber had a self-driving truck deliver a load of 50,000 beers last week, the first time such a truck has been used for commercial purposes. Uber wanted the stunt to show that it already has the technology for self-driving trucking.
The ride was performed by a truck owned by developer Otto, which was acquired by Uber in July. A truck driver was present, but sat in the sleeper cab instead of behind the wheel. Otto's truck covered about 190 kilometres on Colorado's highway. "We wanted to show that the fundamental building blocks of the technology are already there: we are able to perform such an operation on the highway," said Lior Ron, co-founder of Otto. According to Ron, the technology is still in the development phase. "We are busy improving the hardware and software," he said. Uber says it has no intention of developing trucks on a large scale with Otto. It wants to establish itself as a mobility solutions provider by implementing the technology in trucks from other truck manufacturers.
A driver present though
The beer was transported in partnership with brewing chain AB InBev, which says it can save $50 million a year by deploying self-driving trucks in the US. The savings can be attributed to lower fuel costs and a frequent delivery schedule. Because it does require a driver to be present in the truck, it does not initially save on driver costs.
So truck drivers do not have to fear for their jobs for the time being. Thanks to the technology, they do not have to do anything during the journey on the motorway, but during the first and last kilometres they have to get behind the wheel again. This is because the self-driving technology is only suitable for motorways for the time being.
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