Waymo is poised to change how we get a ride and now
the company is focusing on how we get various goods. Starting next week, Waymo
will begin testing a fleet of fully-autonomous semi trucks in and around
Atlanta, Georgia. The trucks will carry equipment headed to Google’s data
center in Douglas County.
Waymo says Atlanta is a great place to test the models
as the city is “one of the biggest logistics hubs in the country.” The city is
also home to Google’s logistical operations and Waymo says this makes Atlanta
the “perfect environment” for testing.
The trucks have already been tested in Arizona and
California and Waymo says its software learned to drive “big rigs in much the
same way a human driver would after years of driving passenger cars.” As the
company explains, the basic principles are the same but driving a semi is
harder as the braking, turning radius and blind spots are completely different
than on normal passenger cars.
This isn’t too much of a problem as Waymo’s
technology is adaptable and the self-driving trucks use the same suite of
sensors as the company’s fully-autonomous minivans. The software is also the
same and it benefits from having driven five million miles on public roads and
over five billion miles in simulations.
The latest test will help Waymo to “further develop
our technology and integrate it into the operations of shippers and carriers,
with their network of factories, distribution centers, ports and terminals.”
These lessons could eventually be applied to other companies who use trucks
with Waymo’s technology.
The trucks will have safety drivers on board to
monitor the various systems and take control if needed. However, truck drivers
could eventually become a thing of the past as Waymo says “self-driving
technology has the potential to make this sector safer and even stronger” in
the future.
