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posted by CoolHand on Friday May 08 2015, @03:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the killer-robot-trucks dept.

The semi-autonomous Freightliner Inspiration Truck from Daimler Trucks North America has received approval from the state of Nevada to operate on its roads:

Highway Pilot utilises stereoscopic cameras located at the front end of the truck which will scan for traffic signs, lane markers, and, of course, other vehicles. This scan results in 3D imagery being fed into the Inspiration Truck's "electronic brain" (computer, surely?) which then adjusts the electric steering rack, the drive-by-wire throttle, and the automated manual transmission to keep the truck between the lines and at a safe distance behind any leading vehicles.

"Ninety-percent of commercial truck accidents are due to driver error and 1 in 8 of those are due to driver fatigue," stated Freightliner's Head of Trucks and Buses, Wolfgang Bernhard, at an unveiling event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bernhard added that AV technology can help curb long-haul fatigue by allowing a computer to handle the longer and duller highway stretches.

Freightliner is refreshingly frank about the automated elements of its Highway Pilot system, and admits they are little more than standard cruise control and lane departure prevention systems which have been somewhat tidied and organised for lorry use. It is understood that there is no intention to weaponise the AVs or develop the capacity to autonomously transform between vehicle types.

Based on existent technologies from its sister company Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner's Inspiration Truck does, however, do away with the requirement for AV-specific infrastructure. Abandoned are the cries for special beacons, or special AV driving lanes. The camera-based technology apparently needs only clear traffic signs and crisp white stripes to function effectively, which is more than one might say for many human drivers.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday May 08 2015, @06:29AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 08 2015, @06:29AM (#180214) Journal

    Movie, that guy who played McCloud in the TV show, '70s vintage? A truck chases him across, well, it must have been Nevada! And tries to kill him, but he stands, trapped, at the edge of a cliff, and when the truck tries to run him down, . . . (spoilage blocked). It was never clear whether that was an evil truck driver, or a semi-autonomous truck whose driver was asleep in the sleeper, or a fully autonomous truck that never made its scheduled delivery. But then there was that other scary movie where all the trucks do gain consciousness and turn on their human masters. . . what was the name of that one? Not Sharknado, but similar production quality and screenwriting.

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  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday May 08 2015, @07:27AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday May 08 2015, @07:27AM (#180225) Homepage

    Maximum Overdrive.
    Or possibly Transformers. I haven't seen it.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Friday May 08 2015, @07:56AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Friday May 08 2015, @07:56AM (#180233) Journal

      Made me google! Please don't do that if you can help it.

      Duel is a 1971 television (and later full-length theatrical) thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Richard Matheson, based on Matheson's short story of the same name. It stars Dennis Weaver as a terrified motorist stalked on a remote and lonely road by the mostly unseen driver of a mysterious tanker truck.

      Maximum Overdrive?

      Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by Stephen King.[4] The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and a young Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story Trucks,

      Credit to Wikipedia for both those gems. And wow, Spielberg and Stephen King in one Fine Article on the Future Truckers of Nevada! I, for one, welcome our new semi-autonomous trucking overlords! Looks like we got us a Convoy!

      1978,
      Director: Sam Peckinpah
      Stars: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine

      imdb.com What could possibly go wrong?

  • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday May 08 2015, @09:43AM

    by deimtee (3272) on Friday May 08 2015, @09:43AM (#180254) Journal

    The movie was Duel. Long time since I watched it, but it was a pretty good movie.
    And I'm fairly sure the truck had a driver, as I remember it, at one point he signals Weaver to overtake him. (spoiler : There's an oncoming vehicle.)

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 [imdb.com]

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.