Robot Truck Delivers Beer In Colorado – NO DRIVER
It would have been an ordinary beer run, delivering 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer, except for one big difference: There was no driver behind the wheel.
On October 20, 2016, Otto, Uber’s self-driving truck subsidiary, along with Budweiser, completed the world’s first shipment by self-driving truck.
After leaving Anheuser-Busch’s Loveland, Colo. facility, with 50,000 cans of beer, the 18-wheeler drove itself down I-25, through Denver, to Colorado Springs and successfully made the world’s first autonomous truck delivery. The driver was out of the driver’s seat during the entire 120 mile stretch of highway.
“Anheuser Busch delivers over 1.2 million truckloads per year and they are always looking for new technology. The driver will always be involved with the pickup, loading the freight and making sure it’s secure in the back of the vehicle, and then once you’re on the interstate, one switch and it’s driving itself down the road.”
Otto claims its technology will still find a use for human drivers — though it seems like a pretty minor one. In an interview with Wired, Lior Ron said he sees a future in which trucks will drive autonomously on the interstate, stop to pick up a human driver, and he or she will complete the journey into towns.
In other words, human drivers might only be necessary for a couple of miles of a cross-country drive — and, therefore, likely paid a lot less than they are currently.
So far, there has been no comment from the Budweiser Clydesdales at this time.