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.