Tim Hearden
Ten percent of our nation s corridors move almost 80% of goods, and a West Coast company believes these corridors are a massive accessible market we think is ripe for autonomy,” its administrator says. ‘The long-haul driver shortage is real,’ TuSimple’s chief administrator says.
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Aug 31, 2021 to Sep 02, 2021
Trucking, the primary method of shipping product across the U.S., has been experiencing a labor shortage for 20 years during which time the development of self-driving freight vehicles has been improving.
Just two years ago, Popular Mechanics magazine reported that a startup Cupertino intelligence company completed what was called “the world’s first autonomous cross-country freight delivery trip,” making a 41-hour, 2,800 mile delivery of 40,000 pounds of butter through a dozen states to a small town in Pennsylvania without a driver at the wheel.
Have you finished that sandwich? If not, it’s classified as contraband
Alistair Dabbs Fri 15 Jan 2021 // 09:30 UTC Share
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Something for the Weekend, Sir? What was the big story of 2020? With the luxury of two weeks hindsight, I think we can all agree: it was, of course, the year autonomous vehicles failed to go mainstream again.
Five years ago, you might have been excused for thinking they were already rolling off the production line (that ll be their dodgy brakes) but then they just vanished like a pantomime genie in a puff of low-emissions diesel exhaust. It was as if manufacturers were hoping that by talking up EVs so much, we d forget AVs ever existed – which in a very real sense they didn t.
Britt Spencer
Finding the product-market fit for any new technology always involves trial and error: autonomous driving has so far has swallowed an estimated $50 billion in investment with relatively little to show in return. In 2021 we will see autonomous driving finally find its fit â and itâs not in personal travel.
Billed as the first everyday consumer application of AI, self-driving has simultaneously inspired its champions and proved a worry for its investors. Aiming high in terms of functionality has delivered plenty of exciting business cases, but the science and engineering problems they entail are not easily soluble. Aiming low has not delivered business cases that make sense and deliver a return. This conundrum has sent technology companies in a number of exciting directions, whereas automotive firms have ended up favouring simpler driving-assistance features that they can monetise more easily.