Uber's self-driving truck completes first delivery

Foreign media reported that in the early morning of October 20, an 18-wheel truck loaded with 50,000 cans of Budweiser beer drove into Colorado Springs, Colorado. Generally speaking, the above scene is not worth mentioning, but the highlight here is that this truck completed this freight mission by autonomous driving. This is also the first time that cargo transportation has been completed by an autonomous vehicle.

The journey began 120 miles (193 kilometers) away at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Loveland, Colorado. The big Volvo truck was equipped with various cameras and sensors. Otto has a total of five similar trucks. Otto is a San Francisco-based company that focuses on self-driving truck technology and was acquired by Uber in August this year. With manual guidance, the truck arrived at the weighing station in Fort Collins, and the 100-mile (161-kilometer) journey from there to Colorado Springs was completed completely without human intervention. The driver was just monitoring from the side during the 2-hour journey, and only returned to manual driving when the truck entered the town road.

"It's pretty cool that somebody in Colorado Springs will be drinking Budweiser this weekend delivered by self-driving truck," said James Sembrot, senior director of logistics strategy at Anheuser-Busch. The cans will even have "First Arrived by Self-Driving Truck" printed on them.

Otto co-founder Lior Ron said Colorado transportation officials helped plan the route for the transport, and patrol vehicles monitored the transport at a distance. The truck maintained an average speed of 55 miles (89 kilometers) per hour throughout the trip. According to Ron, the state troopers following behind praised it because the truck was able to safely stay in its lane in most cases.

Otto was founded in January this year, and Anheuser-Busch contacted the former shortly afterwards. Otto initially had 40 employees, most of whom came from companies like Google, Apple, Tesla and Cruise Automation. Their goal is to transform commercial freight trucks from manual driving to autonomous driving. Ron, an engineer born in Israel, previously worked as a product manager for Google Maps project at Google for 5 years, and his partner Anthony Levandowski came from Google's self-driving car team.

In August, Otto was acquired by Uber for a reported $680 million. The timing of the deal is no coincidence, as Uber has already begun its own self-driving car experiments in Pittsburgh. As part of the deal, Levandowski took over Uber's self-driving team, while Rowan will continue to be responsible for advancing the self-driving freight service called "Uber Freight," which is expected to launch in a few months.

Ron said that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was very excited about the successful completion of the freight mission. Ron further added that Uber is not involved in the logistics business, so Otto's operations are very independent.

Instead of building its own truck from scratch, Otto achieved its goal by combining self-designed hardware with existing truck models. The truck that completed the beer delivery mission was equipped with the following devices: 2 cameras for lane detection, 1 optical radar for creating a 3D environment, 2 front radar sensors for detecting obstacles and other vehicles on the road, and 1 GPS sensor to help the truck achieve precise positioning. In order to map the route this time, Otto drove the truck on Interstate 25 and completed a round trip in advance.

Ron said Otto's goal is to make the entire trucking industry safer. "94% of fatalities and injuries are caused by human negligence," he pointed out. Self-driving trucks can also reduce insurance costs related to this. And by avoiding unnecessary acceleration, it can also achieve higher fuel economy.

Although current laws require such trucks to be manned, Ron said that with Otto's technology, truck drivers can feel more relaxed during long-distance driving. Of course, the ultimate goal of the technology is to completely eliminate the need for human drivers, which will make freight manufacturers happy, while on the other hand, truck drivers and unions are obviously resistant to this.

"We will test more road types, weather conditions and road traffic conditions, and will work with more partners to carry out activities in the future," said Ron.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.