That truck driving down the interstate might not have a flesh-and-blood driver.
On Wednesday FedEx announced its first autonomously-driven Class 8 truck delivery route (“Class 8 truck” is an industry term for what many Americans call a “semi-trailer truck”). Working with truck maker PACCAR and self-driving company Aurora, which is
The route on Interstate 45 between Houston and Dallas is about 500 miles round trip, and expected to be busy as the holiday shopping season approaches. The test route will run multiple times each week starting Wednesday. The Aurora-modified trucks will drive in real, everyday traffic, and a safety driver will be behind the wheel, but the trucks will be operating in autonomous mode.
Credit: Screenshot: FEDEX
Inside the truck cab, Aurora’s autonomous equipment includes a screen showing what the truck is seeing around it from the cameras, LiDAR, radar, and other sensors stacked onto the big-rig. Aurora has been developing Level 4 self-driving trucks with other partners
Credit: SCREENSHOT: FEDEX
FedEx has dabbled in other high-tech delivery methods, like with