Uber Gains a Rival in the World of Self-driving Trucks
Waymo has announced it has begun working on self-driving trucks, possibly to further annoy its chief industry rival, Uber Technologies. On Thursday, the Alphabet-owned development team said it was venturing into autonomous trucking, only two weeks after UberFreight’s official launch.
While the ride-hailing giant has been working on self-driving trucks since its acquisition of Otto last year, the timing of the two more recent announcements are suspiciously close.
However, Waymo may not have intended for word to get out. Buzzfeed had apparently spotted a suspicious looking test vehicle plying public roads in a photograph and inquired as to its ownership.
“We’re taking our eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a technical exploration into how our technology can integrate into a truck,” a Waymo spokesperson explained in an official statement.
At present, Waymo is only testing a single truck and is focusing its efforts on data collection. Uber performed its first autonomous trucking delivery in October 2016 in a cross-promotional bid with Anheuser-Busch. In that stunt, the Otto-developed semi-trailer hauled a full load 120 miles down the highway with the driver only taking control on city streets. Comparatively, Waymo is only just scratching the surface on the quest to potentially eliminate millions of trucking jobs.
[Image: Waymo]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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How are you going to get those protrusions on the fenders and the roof to go through a car wash without getting screwed up?
So much boasting, bluster and posturing...Why hasn't anyone challenged the industry with a friendly self-driving competition? My guess it's because no one is close yet...