Waymo's path to robot truck business mastering wind, flares and pedestrians on the highway
Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous driving company, is vague on exactly when semis controlled by its technology will be hauling cargo—without drivers—across the U.S., but has a detailed list of challenges to be mastered first, ranging from rough winds and slick roads, stray pedestrians on the highway and figuring out how robot trucks can deploy safety flares when they have to pull over.
“At the federal level there are some unique requirements that are really written for human-driven trucks today. For example,on the road while you’re pulled over on a shoulder,” says Charlie Jatt, Waymo’s head of commercialization for trucking. He’s tight-lipped on how that will be solved but conceded it probably won’t be with a “robot cannon shooting out flares.”
“We probably think about what the world might throw at you with a level of thoroughness that’s bordering on paranoia.”“We have a large number that are coming online throughout this quarter and going into the later part of the year,” said Boris Sofman, Waymo’s senior director of engineering and head of trucking and perception. “Then we’re going to expand it aggressively again next year, especially as we start to have more Daimler Trucks through our partnership.
“It’ll probably be decades of work to solve the overall generalized problem of driving everywhere in all conditions in all countries,” Sofman said. That’s why Waymo is focused on designing transfer hubs tailored to autonomous trucks. “From a business point of view it makes a lot of sense to really think about what’s the path of least resistance that most opens up the market and builds the biggest amount of value possible.
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