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Daimler has been road-testing its autonomous trucks in Nevada since May. From the BBC:
Daimler is currently seeking certification for a self-driving truck so it can be tested on public roads in Germany.
[...] "We're testing in Germany on our own proving grounds. The next step is getting real-life experience on German highways as well," [spokesman Wolfgang Bernhard] told the BBC. "We're looking to do that in the second half of the year."
Bernhard is confident Daimler will get certification within weeks. The self-driving trucks use GPS, radar and video cameras to navigate, and there's always a driver present and able to immediately retake control of the truck if needed.
Spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
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Daimler Seeks License for Road Testing Autonomous Trucks in Germany
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that a belch is more satisfying.
-- Ingmar Bergman
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday July 28 2015, @02:30PM
"Ninety-percent of commercial truck accidents are due to driver error and 1 in 8 of those are due to driver fatigue,"
That statement is less wrong than I thought it was, on first reading it. I found a couple sets of statistics to support it, and a clarification. "Nearly 90 percent of commercial truck accidents are caused or worsened by some sort of human error—either on behalf of a truck driver, other drivers, other vehicle passengers, cyclists or pedestrians" So - 90% are due to driver error, but not necessarily the TRUCK DRIVER's error. Yeah, we're getting somewhere now.
"About 75 percent of commercial truck accidents are caused by drivers of other smaller passenger vehicles, rather than the truck driver"
Now we're talking. THESE are the kind of statistics that I'm accustomed to reading. Truck drivers do screw up - but three times out of four, it's the OTHER DRIVER who screwed up!
http://www.truckaccidents.org/statistics/ [truckaccidents.org]
Read the sentence I quoted first, one more time. Doesn't it seem to imply that the truck driver is at fault 90% of the time? And, it further seems to imply that truck drivers are falling asleep at the wheel, routinely. And, that just ain't so!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @02:44PM
I agree that phrase seems to imply the commercial driver is at fault most the time.
Commercial drivers spend a lot of time on the road, so actually have more experience than the average driver.
I have had several instances where commercial drivers have accommodated my mistakes on the road.
In one instance I overestimated the speed and acceleration of a merging truck. A truck driver occupying the next lane actually moved over one lane so that I could go around.