When a self-driving truck is made to make a delivery for the first time, it must be the world’s most widely consumed alcoholic beverage, beer. Image INQUIRER.net
First, there were self-driving cars, then buses, and now a self-driving truck, which has successfully delivered a load of Budweiser beer.
The truck is a culmination of the efforts from Otto, a company acquired by Uber sometime in August. Otto then partnered with Anheuser-Busch to ship 45,000 cans of Budweiser beer 120 miles from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs, reports Recode.
As insurance, a professional truck driver was inside the truck the entire time. However, he was never called upon to intervene as the truck made its way from exit to exit. Its programming was set up to hand over control to a human driver when it needed to exit the freeway.
Lior Ron, co-founder of Otto, stated, “By embracing this technology, both organizations are actively contributing to the creation of a safer and more efficient transportation network.”
The partnership with Anheuser-Busch only lasted for this one trip where the company paid Otto $470 to make the delivery. However, the point of the exercise was to have a proof-of-concept that Otto’s technology is close to being market-ready.
When the technology does become available for the market, it will be under a service called UberFreight. And it will not be alone as other companies such as Convoy are also exploring emerging self-driving solutions. Alfred Bayle
Otto self-driving truck making its beer run
