Mercedes becomes the first automaker to sell autonomous cars in the U.S. that don't come with a requirement that drivers watch the road

Michael Ten @lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 571 points –
Exclusive: Mercedes becomes the first automaker to sell autonomous cars in the U.S. that don't come with a requirement that drivers watch the road
fortune.com
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if it can drive a car why wouldn't it be able to drive a truck?

I'm surprised companies don't just build their own special highway for automated trucking and use people for last mile stuff.

We could make it work on a guide line and attach a bunch of trailers to one truck. You're a genius.

yeah that would be great. Say, you can save on that a little if you put wheel guides on the road since theyre all headed in the same direction, and maybe you can replace the tires with something that fits into that guide pretty well so that you don’t have to replace them as much. Matter of fact, all of these trucks can become electric if they run electricity through the track or above it. This is a revolutionary idea!!

On private roads in Canada, the mining giant Teck is starting to use autonomous transport trucks.

https://im-mining.com/2021/05/05/teck-adds-autonomous-mining-trucks-plus-battery-copper-concentrate-road-hauler-introduced/

To me this is less frightening for public safety and more for reasons related to climate change, since this kind of industrial expansion will be less contingent on worker availability.

Mind you, the whole push toward driverless vehicles seems insanely redundant as a concept, since driverless tech in the form of high-speed rail has been around for decades in an infinitely more efficient way than could ever be offered by personal vehicles.

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