Monday, November 13, 2017

Self Driving, Robot Trucks Crossing New Mexico With Appliances

Chalk up another route for self-driving, robot trucks across the West. According to appliance maker Frigidaire this morning, the company has been hauling its refrigerators using self driving, robotic trucks across New Mexico on Interstate 10 since last month, as part of a pilot of fully autonomous, self driving freight trucks. Frigidaire and robotic truck technology maker Embark, along with commercial fleet management provider Ryder Systems revealed late Sunday evening that they have been using automated, robotic trucks to deliver loads of appliances from El Paso, Texas, across the I-10 in New Mexico, to a warehouse in Southern California, as part of a pilot program to help move freight more efficiently across the nation. According to the three companies, they have been moving Frigidaire refrigerators 650 miles at a time using automated driving technology since October. The three companies said that the Level 2 systems, for now, have a properly licensed driver ready to take over in the event of any issues, but that it is moving towards a future of fully autonomous trucks for highway operation---and hopes to expand how many of the robotic trucks it has on the road in the pilot, soon. Frigidaire joins Anheuser-Busch as the second major company to start experimenting with robotic trucks on the region's roads: a year ago, Uber, via its own autonomous trucking unit, Otto, launched a pilot to haul Budweiser across Colorado from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs.