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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 11 2018, @03:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the harsh-test-environment dept.

Waymo officially expands self-driving effort into trucks

Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving company born out of Google X, is seen by many as the leader in the field of self-driving.

After focusing on autonomous passenger cars to soon launch a self-driving ride-hailing service, the company is now expanding the effort to trucks. The company has been known to have been working on a truck program since last summer, but they confirmed it today in a blog post.

[...] Now the program is expanding to Atlanta, Georgia, which they will make the home of Google's logistical operations. From there, Waymo will ship cargo to Google's data centers. They say that you will be able to see Waymo's blue trucks on the road as soon as next week as part of the pilot program

Also at TechCrunch, Ars Technica, and Reuters.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by black6host on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:22PM (4 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:22PM (#651046) Journal

    With autonomous trucks and cars how long will it be before people start "trolling" them on the highways? Seriously, box one in and you control how fast it goes and possibly where just by herding the damn things.

    I reckon someone will try it... It's not like your going to have some angry trucker running you off the road or anything. At least not once they get rid of the drivers in the cab that they'll use at first.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:40PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:40PM (#651056)

    You can do the same thing with normal trucks today. The truck will do the same thing a driver should. Call for help. Oh and think you will get away? The truck will have high resolution pictures of you (as it needs that to drive). You say 'oh I will just drive off them' well it can follow you and wait for the police to show up. Or call for backup and have a small car follow you home and you would not even see them. Then park in front of your house and wait for the police to show up.

    But yeah someone will do it. Then get arrested/fined. I have not looked into it but running cars/trucks off the road probably would be a crime (even today). Like many laws they engage after the deed is done. I am sure the guys running these companies will grab their local political flunky and write more laws to help them out.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:58PM (#651067)

      And running the car off the road for yourself.

      I've already heard from (mostly young) people in the automotive industry who do that for people who bought cars they either can't afford, or want to replace.

      Now add in the bonus of using said car to ruin some autnomous cars before either leaving it abandoned, destroyed, or sent to a chop shop and you've just gotten paid twice or thrice for the same bit of work.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12 2018, @06:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12 2018, @06:20AM (#651223)

      You can do the same thing with normal trucks today.

      No you can't. Try that with most truckers and they will assume they are being hijacked and drive right through you.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by darkfeline on Sunday March 11 2018, @10:54PM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Sunday March 11 2018, @10:54PM (#651105) Homepage
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