Robo trucks take major step forward for tech in Texas
The autonomous 18-wheelers — which still carry a driver behind the wheel — have been making the roughly four-trip between Dallas and Houston to transport food and dairy products, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Aurora Innovation, a startup, said it was able to achieve driverless trucking after dark because of its LiDAR system, which casts laser beams to see items in 3D and measure the distance to those objects.
3 A self-driving tractor trailer on a test track in Pittsburgh in March 2024.
AP
The system used in the Aurora Driver is able to identify objects in the dark as far away as the length of three football fields, the company said Wednesday.
That allows the trucks to spot pedestrians, other vehicles and debris on the road about 11 seconds quicker than a human driver.
The technology is a crucial component of self-driving cars from brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo, as well as Waymo robotaxis, which have been operating around the clock in busy cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles for years.
Until recently, autonomous trucks have only operated on roads while it's light out with good weather, fearful of risks that could arise amid more complex driving conditions.
But operators of the robo-trucks claim the LIDAR system is more reliable than human drivers, who could be sleepy and distracted behind the wheel after cross-country routes.
The nighttime capabilities are quite an accomplishment since 'it's even harder than it is during the daytime to be able to disambiguate, say, a person versus a piece of tire on a freeway,' Aurora CEO and co-founder Chris Urmson told the Journal.
Critics have argued that autonomous trucks come with steep risks, such as handling traffic, bad weather and unexpected blockages in the road.
'Maybe they are good for less populated areas,' truck driver Troy Turnham told the Journal.
3 Aurora Innovation said it reached a new milestone with its LiDAR system.
AP
'I'm not sure I would trust being around them when a severe storm hits, nor in the winter.'
Kodiak Robotics has also started operating driverless trucks at night in parts of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.
Five of these trucks operate on leased roads, not highways, without drivers on board to deliver loads of sand for use in fracking.
The company also operates trucks in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Oklahoma City, but these vehicles have drivers on board at night.
Several tests were performed before the trucks were permitted to drive at night, including test-runs with mannequins on a track.
The use of the Aurora Driver has grown rapidly, completing more than 20,000 miles since it started on public roads in May across three trucks.
3 The interior of the cab of a self-driving Aurora truck.
AP
Now the company is testing a system between Phoenix and Fort Worth – a 16-hour route that usually requires two drivers.
There are federal laws in place to regulate how much time long-haul truckers can spend on the road, placing a maximum of 11 hours behind the wheel in a 14-hour period followed by a mandatory 10-hour break.
But proponents argue this could all change with autonomous trucks – allowing human drivers to take on shorter, less strenuous routes while self-driving trucks handle the long hauls, according to Richard Stocking, chief executive of Hirshback Motor Lines in Iowa.
Using autonomous trucks for these less attractive routes could win over younger workers who want more of a work-life balance with more predictable schedules, he added.
Human drivers could go home more often, 'if not daily, several times a week,' Stocking said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ryan Blaney knocks off Shane van Gisbergen for pole at Watkins Glen
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Ryan Blaney bested Shane van Gisbergen in Cup Series road course qualifying by three hundredths of a second on Saturday, capturing the pole position at Watkins Glen International. Blaney turned a lap of 1 minute, 11.960 seconds in the No. 12 Ford, edging van Gisbergen's No. 88 Chevrolet (1 minute, 11.993 seconds). Starting first in Sunday's 110-lap race at Watkins Glen was a surprise for Blaney, who has only three top 10 finishes on the 2.45-mile track. The 2023 Cup champion is mired in a 22-race slump without a top-five finish on a road course. 'What a cool pole,' said Blaney, who earned the 150th Cup pole position for Team Penske. 'I'm a pretty average road racer, and I work really hard to get better at it and try to figure out ways to be better. We've got to find a little bit of race pace, but it's nice to have one-lap speed. It's fun when you can sit on the pole at a place where I'm not very good.' Bidding for his fourth consecutive Cup victory on a road or street course, van Gisbergen will start second after having won from the pole at Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma. 'Man, it's amazing how close it all is for a road course,' van Gisbergen said. "My laps were OK, and there probably were some things I could have fixed. Decent start for tomorrow." Chase Briscoe, who had started on the pole position the past two weeks at Iowa Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, qualified third in the No. 19 Toyota, followed by Ross Chastain's No. 1 Chevrolet and Kyle Busch's No. 8 Chevrolet. ___
San Francisco Chronicle
7 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Whitmer told Trump in private that Michigan auto jobs depend on a tariff change of course
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met privately in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump to make a case he did not want to hear: the automotive industry he said he wants to save were being hurt by his tariffs. The Democrat came with a slide deck to make her points in a visual presentation. Just getting the meeting last Tuesday with the Republican president was an achievement for someone viewed as a contender for her party's White House nomination in 2028. Whitmer's strategy for dealing with Trump highlights the conundrum for her and other Democratic leaders as they try to protect the interests of their states while voicing their opposition to his agenda. It's a dynamic that Whitmer has navigated much differently from many other Democratic governors. The fact that Whitmer had 'an opening to make direct appeals' in private to Trump was unique in this political moment, said Matt Grossman, a Michigan State University politics professor. It was her third meeting with Trump at the White House since he took office in January. This one, however, was far less public than the time in April when Whitmer was unwittingly part of an impromptu news conference that embarrassed her so much she covered her face with a folder. On Tuesday, she told the president that the economic damage from the tariffs could be severe in Michigan, a state that helped deliver him the White House in 2024. Whitmer also brought up federal support for recovery efforts after an ice storm and sought to delay changes to Medicaid. Trump offered no specific commitments, according to people familiar with the private conversation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity to describe it. Whitmer is hardly the only one sounding the warning of the potentially damaging consequences, including factory job losses, lower profits and coming price increases, of the import taxes that Trump has said will be the economic salvation for American manufacturing. White House spokesman Kush Desai that no other president 'has taken a greater interest in restoring American auto industry dominance than President Trump." Trade frameworks negotiated by the administration would open up the Japanese, Korean and European markets for vehicles made on assembly lines in Michigan, Desai said. But the outreach Trump has preferred tends to be splashy presentations by tech CEOs. In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the president a customized glass plaque with a gold base as Cook promised $600 billion in investments. Trump claims to have brought in $17 trillion in investment commitments, although none of those numbers has surfaced yet in economic data. Under his series of executive orders and trade frameworks, U.S. automakers face import taxes of 50% on steel and aluminum, 30% on parts from China and a top rate of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico not covered under an existing 2020 trade agreement. That puts America's automakers and parts suppliers at a disadvantage against German, Japanese and South Korean vehicles that only face a 15% import tax negotiated by Trump last month. On top of that, Trump this past week threatened a 100% tariff on computer chips, which are an integral part of cars and trucks, though he would exclude companies that produce chips domestically from the tax. Whitmer's two earlier meetings with Trump resulted in gains for Michigan. But the tariffs represent a significantly broader request of a president who has imposed them even more aggressively in the face of criticism. Materials in the presentation brought Whitmer to the meeting and obtained by The Associated Press noted how trade with Canada and Mexico has driven $23.2 billion in investment to Michigan since 2020. General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis operate 50 factories across the state, while more than 4,000 facilities support the auto parts supply chain. Altogether, the sector supports nearly 600,000 manufacturing jobs, forming the backbone of Michigan's economy. Whitmer outlined the main points of the materials to Trump and left copies with his team. To Grossman, the Michigan State professor, a key question is whether voters who expected to be helped by tariffs would react if Trump's import taxes failed to deliver the promised economic growth. 'Everyone's aware that Michigan is a critical swing state and the auto industry has outsized influence, not just directly, but symbolically,' Grossman said. AP VoteCast found that Trump won Michigan in 2024 largely because two-thirds of its voters described the economic conditions as being poor or 'not so good.' Roughly 70% of the voters in the state who felt negatively about the economy backed the Republican. The state was essentially split over whether tariffs were a positive, with Trump getting 76% of those voters who viewed them favorably. The heads of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have repeatedly warned the administration that the tariffs would cut company profits and undermine their global competitiveness. Their efforts have resulted in little more than a temporary, monthlong pause intended to give companies time to adjust. The reprieve did little to blunt the financial fallout. In the second quarter alone, Ford reported $800 million in tariff-related costs, while GM said the import taxes cost it $1.1 billion. Those expenses could make it harder to reinvest in new domestic factories, a goal Trump has championed. 'We expect tariffs to be a net headwind of about $2 billion this year, and we'll continue to monitor the developments closely and engage with policymakers to ensure U.S. autoworkers and customers are not disadvantaged by policy change,' Ford CEO Jim Farley said on his company's earning call. Smaller suppliers have felt the strain, too. Detroit Axle, a family-run auto parts distributor, has been one of the more vocal companies in Michigan about the impact of the tariffs. The company initially announced it might have to shut down a warehouse and lay off more than 100 workers, but later said it would be able to keep the facility open, at least for now. 'Right now it's a market of who is able to survive, it's not a matter of who can thrive,' said Mike Musheinesh, owner of Detroit Axle.
New York Post
10 hours ago
- New York Post
John Deere pledges to pour $20B into its US operations to ‘continue building and investing in America'
Advertisement Farm equipment giant John Deere announced this year it is investing nearly $20 billion over the next decade to bolster its US operations as part of its ongoing commitment to American manufacturing. 'We look forward to carrying forward our founder's legacy of ingenuity as we continue building and investing in America,' Cory Reed, president of Deere & Co.'s worldwide agriculture and turf division for production and precision agriculture in the Americas and Australia, told FOX Business. 'We were born here, and we're here to stay.' The company's $20 billion investment focuses on the development of new products, 'cutting-edge' technology and more advanced manufacturing capabilities, Reed said. Advertisement John Deere is investing nearly $20 billion in the US over the next decade. AP Founded in 1837 in Grand Detour, Ill., by blacksmith John Deere, the company has made significant investments in the US in recent years to expand and modernize its factories and build new ones. John Deere is building a $70 million factory in Kernersville, North Carolina, which will be dedicated to manufacturing excavators, Reed said. The company recently completed a $40 million expansion at its Des Moines, Iowa, factory to build See & Spray sprayers, which use computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect and target weeds. Advertisement The company was founded in 1837 in Grand Detour, Ill. It also invested nearly $150 million to renovate its factory in East Moline, Illinois, to build its new X9 combines, which raise harvesting capacity by around 45%, according to the John Deere website. 'These investments are helping us solve some of our customers' biggest challenges,' Reed said. 'Our customers are the backbone of our communities, and we're proud to provide the solutions that make their jobs easier and more efficient.'Nearly 80% of John Deere's US sales and 25% of its international sales are from products manufactured domestically. Advertisement The company employs about 30,000 people at more than 60 US locations, and its network of independent US dealerships employs an additional 50,000, Reed said.
