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Uber Acquires Autonomous Trucking Firm Otto

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autonomous trucking

Uber Technologies has acquired autonomous trucking startup Otto for a reported $680 million and is announcing a deal with Volvo Car Group to build the technology into sedans and SUVs. Tech website dcvelocity.com wrote of the acquisition in an article by Ben Ames.

“Formed in 2016 by four veterans of Google’s self-driving car project, San Francisco-based Otto’s combination of hardware and software retrofits existing trucks with autonomous driving abilities by adding sensors to the roof,” the story stated.

Following the merger, Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski, oversees Uber’s self-driving efforts for applications in personal transportation, delivery, and trucking. Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick shared this in a blog post.

In the deal, Uber paid approximately 1% of its estimated $68 billion valuation.

This makes the privately-held Otto worth $680 million, according to Reuters.

 “In order to provide digital services in the physical world, we must build sophisticated logistics, artificial intelligence, and robotics systems,” Kalanick stated.

The deal means Uber extends its digital ride-sharing platform into larger sectors.

Examples include deliveries and trucking. Also, Uber plans to leverage the Otto acquisition by applying the technology to passenger cars. But, truck drivers remain concerned about potential job losses. However, CDL driver jobs aren’t in jeopardy anytime soon from the deal.

Despite the combination of advanced technologies, regulatory challenges ensure that self-driving trucks won’t hit the roads until 2025. This is according to Wallace Lau, mobility team lead at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

“The technology to build an autonomous truck remains available today. We’ve seen this from Daimler and from Otto as well,” Lau said in an email. “However, the biggest hurdle is the regulatory environment and societal acceptance of autonomous driving on public roads. Extensive testing is under way to prove that autonomous driving can be successful in all weather and traffic conditions.”

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Autonomous Trucks Platoon Across Europe. What Will it Mean for Drivers?

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will autonomous driving effect people with CDL trucking jobs?Autonomous trucks platoons just pulled off a landmark feat. How it will impact fleet management and CDL driving jobs in the future remains to be seen.  Fierce Mobile IT  writer Alyssa Huntley recently wrote about the event—six brands of autonomous trucks that successfully platooned across Europe for the first time in history.

The automated trucks platooned across Europe and arrived in Maavlakte seaport in the Netherlands in April.

The journeys completed as part of the European Truck Platooning Challenge, an operation put on by Rijkswaterstaat. The Netherlands’ main infrastructure design, management and maintenance organization. Truck platooning could potentially be used for freight shipping, the article explained.

In platooning, two to three trucks drive in a single-file line – referred to as a column – along the highway. A human operates the lead truck, with autonomous trucks following connected via Wi-Fi. The lead truck determines speed and route, transmitted over the Wi-Fi connection.

Trucks follow more closely, freeing up space along the highway for other vehicles.

The Wi-Fi connection results in synchronized breaking and reduces the likelihood of sudden jolts or shocks, which could help traffic flow and speed up deliveries. Fuel costs could go down by up to 10%, which would come with a reduction in CO2 emissions, the article noted.

“This opens the door for upscaled, cross-border truck platooning,” Schultz van Haegen said. Van Haegen noted that the information gathered in the challenge proves useful during an informal European transport council meeting in Amsterdam on April 14. “It certainly helps my colleagues and I discuss the adjustments needed to make self-driving transport a reality,” he said.

The technology is still being refined. Autonomous driving has been a hot topic in the industry lately, but how will it affect people with CDL truck driving jobs? This is a topic we will continue to follow.

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Attend Public Hearings on Autonomous Vehicle Safety

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Public hearings on autonomous driving for CDL truck driversAll this buzz about autonomous driving technology started many conversations. Recently published in an article by Trucking Info, the Department of Transportation (DOT) holds two public hearings to receive input on the best way to integrate autonomous vehicles.

The first meeting will be held in Washington D.C. on April 8th. The second meeting will be in California, but the date has not been set yet.

In the article,  Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx said:

“The feedback from these meetings will help the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration provide manufacturers with the rules of the road for how we expect automated vehicles to operate safely.”

In addition, NHTSA released a Volpe Center report prepared for DOT.

Overall, it identifies potential barriers and challenges for the certification of automated vehicles using existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

He also advised that NHTSA “continues to take other key steps to support the development of new technologies, including working with local and state leaders on model state policy so that we have some overarching safety principles nationwide, and determining what new regulatory tools and authorities may be needed to meet their safety mission in a time of rapidly changing technology.”

In addition, the Volpe report examines other autonomous vehicle concepts. For example, these include truck platooning, heavy duty driverless delivery vehicles, and riderless delivery motorcycles.

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