Waymo announces new efforts in self-driving trucks
Waymo, one of the main players in self-driving cars, announced today in a blog post that it is expanding its autonomous vehicle technology into big rig trucks. Though the company has been testing this tech for a little while now, it is ready to begin a pilot program in Atlanta to deliver cargo to Google datacenters.
Moving onto trucks is possible because of the experience that the engineers and AI experts has gained in Waymo's autonomous passenger vehicles (five million road/five billion simulation miles traveled, apparently). The sensor array is the same one found on the Waymo minivan, and, thanks to its overseers, the self-driving technology is set to learn how to drive a fully-loaded truck and trailer, a skill that most humans do not have.
Self-driving trucks could be quite interesting, since trucking is a very vital part of our economy. If you're in Atlanta, be looking for the bright blue Waymo big rig.
