CCJ

April 2018

Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal

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20 commercial carrier journal | april 2018 less autonomous vehicles — the first such legislation of its kind. California followed suit and expects to begin issuing permits for person-less testing this month. Starsky's system uses soware and radar and camera systems for au- tonomous highway driving but solves the issue of final-mile delivery by removing drivers from the cab entirely and putting them in an office where they can operate trucks remotely from terminal to delivery. Such a platform doesn't make a lot of sense if a person is required to be inside the truck. It essentially requires two people to do the job one person currently is doing. at's in stark contrast with the company's mission of allowing one per- son to do the job currently being done by multiple people. T wo months ago, in the Mid- dle-Of-Nowhere, Fla., a person placed a tractor in drive, brought it up to speed and centered the truck in its lane. Big deal, right? at happens millions of times every day. But the driver of this truck was about 100 miles away from his tractor. e truck only traveled seven miles, and it didn't have a trailer attached, but none of that is particularly important right now. When California-based trucking tech upstart Starsky Robotics ceded control of its truck to a combination of sensors, tech- nology and luck, it became the first player in the space that we know of to oversee an autonomous drive on a public road without a person in the cab. Autonomous testing happens about every day, but there is almost always a person in the seat or bunk. at person is there to take over if anything goes awry, and they're also required to be there, according to most state laws. Florida is one of the most autono- mous-friendly states in the nation, having passed laws in late 2016 that allow for driver- PRODUCT REVIEWS, OEM & SUPPLIER NEWS AND EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT TRENDS BY JASON CANNON EVERYDAY OCCURRENCE: Most autonomous testing happens with a person in the seat or bunk. BACK-OFFICE DRIVER: Starsky Robotics' system allows one driver to monitor several trucks. REGULATORY ROADBLOCK: State legislation must loosen up to allow more autonomous testing. Seven important autonomous miles Starsky touts first driverless truck run with no one in cab Starsky Robotics' system addresses final-mile delivery by putting drivers in an office where they can operate trucks remotely from terminal to delivery.

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