In the US, unmanned trucks will be released on public roads: without an operator in the cab

The idea of ​​unmanned trucks has been actively studied for more than a year, but no one has been able to achieve significant results in this direction before. The fact is that it was allowed to release such vehicles on public roads, but a human operator should always sit in the cab in case of emergency. Einride engineers solved this problem in the bud – they designed the Einride Pod electric truck, which simply does not have a cab for a human driver. And this vehicle, most importantly, was approved for driving on public roads in the United States.

This is the first time in the US that the authorities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) have approved the movement of an unmanned cargo vehicle without an operator in the cab or escort vehicles on public roads. However, as always, there are certain subtleties. The Einride Pod unmanned truck uses a variety of sensors, special cameras, radars and lidars to move around – this allows it to follow the markings, avoid collisions with obstacles, cars or pedestrians in front. But there will still be an operator for every truck on the road – he is located remotely in the control center, and not in the cab, and can take control in critical situations.

However, this is still a huge leap forward – before, unmanned trucks seemed useless, since a person still had to be present in the cab. Now this is not necessary – you can drive a vehicle from anywhere in the world, which will provide jobs and further development in this direction. In the meantime, starting in the third quarter of this year, electric trucks will deliver goods between warehouses using the same roads as ordinary human drivers.

Source: Trash Box

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