Automated trucks
Several companies are said to be testing automated technology in semi
trucks. Otto, a self-driving trucking company that was acquired by Uber
in August 2016, demonstrated their trucks on the highway before being
acquired. In May 2017, San Francisco-based startup Embark announced a
partnership with truck manufacturer Peterbilt to test and deploy
automated technology in Peterbilt’s vehicles. Waymo has also said to be
testing automated technology in trucks, however no timeline has been
given for the project.
In March 2018, Starsky Robotics, the San Francisco-based automated truck
company, completed a 7-mile (11 km) fully driverless trip in Florida
without a single human in the truck. Starsky Robotics became the first
player in the self-driving truck game to drive in fully automated mode
on a public road without a person in the cab. In Europe, the truck
Platooning is considered with the Safe Road Trains for the Environment
approach.Vehicular automation also covers other kinds of vehicles such
as Buses, Trains, Trucks. Lockheed Martin with funding from the U.S.
Army developed an automated truck convoying system that uses a lead
truck operated by a human driver with a number of trucks following
autonomously. Developed as part of the Army’s Autonomous Mobility
Applique System (AMAS), the system consists of an automated driving
package that has been installed on more than nine types of vehicles and
has completed more than 55,000 hours of driving at speeds up to 64
kilometres per hour (40 mph) as of 2014. As of 2017 the Army was
planning to field 100-200 trucks as part of a rapid-fielding program.