Aurora has quietly notified a major milestone in the race to market autonomous vehicles, launching a totally without drivers truck service that has already registered more than 1,200 miles on public roads in Texas.
The 18 wheels of the company have been moving frozen cakes while operating without a human in the cabin along a 45 interstate section between Dallas and Houston, marking a turning point for both the goods industry and the future of automated transport.
Aurora launch on April 27 followed four years of road tests with security controllers and the completion of a rigorous “security case”: an evidence -based analysis used to justify the system’s preparation for public deployment, according to the New York Times.
Since then, the company has ensured that its driver system Aurora has completed more than 1,200 miles that are completely autonomous with the merchandise and Hirschbach goods engine lines.
“It was a surreal time,” he wrote in a blog post, the co -founder of Aurora and CEO of Aurora, who went to the rear seat during the back and forth.
“I am crossing the road at 65 kilometers per hour, not behind the wheel, but in the back seat, seeing that the landscape unfolds as a load of pastry trucks is driven by the technology that I have helped to create … and yet it is quite boring. It’s exactly how it should be.”
Urmson, a former Google Automatic Vehicle Project leader, said that Aurora’s trucks are equipped with a 360 -degree sensor suite capable of detecting objects up to 1,000 meters away.
The system is designed to drive carefully, obeying speed limits, avoiding aggressive maneuvers and using air gusts to keep the sensors clean in the rain.
For now, vehicles only work during the hours of the day and in good weather, although Aurora intends to expand the routes in El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.
However, the rapid launch has increased alarms between security experts, work defenders and even experienced truckers.
“My initial thinking is: he is scary,” he told The Times Angela Griffin, a veteran driver who has experienced first -hand how time and construction areas can even confuse human drivers.
“I don’t see how a driverless truck could have read and recognize the threat that it was imminent.”
The regulatory supervision of autonomous trucks is still limited.
The car carrier security administration of the Department of Transportation does not yet have to issue specific rules for automated goods, although he says he “works actively” with the state governments and the interested parties in the industry to modernize security protocols.
Some experts are concerned that states like Texas, which houses innovation with less restrictions, could be reasons of non -proven technology proof.
“There is still no requirement for independent controls and balances,” the Times Philip Koopman, a safety researcher for autonomous vehicles at Carnegie Mellon University, told The Times.
“The aurora is more cautious than most, but the regulatory structure is simply not there.”
Despite these concerns, some veterans in the industry believe that automation could make roads more secure.
“I think the growth of jobs will mean the addition of autonomous trucks,” said Gary Buchs, a long time driver who now supports autonomous technologies.
“Young people want to change their job.”
Aurora insists that its technology is not designed to replace human drivers, but to meet the increasing demand of goods and address labor shortages.
“It’s a noble job,” Urmson said. “That said, people no longer want to do it especially.”
Currently, with two trucks free of drivers and with a temporarily reinstalled observer at the request of the truck manufacturer, the Aurora launch is still in its early stages.
The company plans to climb up to at least 20 trucks this year.
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