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takyon writes:

Google is testing a single self-driving commercial truck on a private track in California. The company may be looking to compete with Otto, a self-driving truck company that Uber acquired in August:

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc., is testing a self-driving truck. The company, formerly known as Google's autonomous car venture, has installed its self-driving technology on a single Class 8 Peterbilt truck. Waymo has begun tests at a private track in California and plans road tests in Arizona later in the year. For now, it is keeping a driver behind the wheel at all times.

The company, which has millions of miles of on-road experience with autonomous cars, wants to learn how self-driving technology works in larger vehicles. Trucks in the heaviest Class 8 weight segment handle differently than passenger cars. They accelerate and brake more slowly. Their turning radius is far larger. They have giant blind spots. All of this requires that the sensors that provide data to the computer systems driving the truck be positioned differently than where they would be on a car.

"Self-driving technology can transport people and things much more safely than we do today and reduce the thousands of trucking-related deaths each year," Waymo said in a statement. "We're taking our eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a technical exploration into how our technology can integrate into a truck."

Also at Reuters, TechCrunch, The Verge, and CNET.

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