Startup Wants To Put Self-Driving Big Rigs On US Highways
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A robot-loving engineer who helped steer Google's work on self-driving cars is now trying to transplant the technology to trucks barreling down the highway with as much as 80,000 pounds of cargo.
To realize his vision, Anthony Levandowski has teamed up with two other former Google employees and a robotics expert to found Otto.
The San Francisco startup is aiming to equip trucks with software, sensors, lasers and cameras so they eventually will be able to navigate the more than 220,000 miles of U.S. highways on their own, while a human driver naps in the back of the cab or handles other tasks.
A leading transportation expert, however, thinks it will still be decades before self-driving technology is reliable enough to allow robot truckers behind the wheel of big rigs.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.