Google's Waymo Self-Driving Truck: Car Company Confirms Expansion of Autonomous Vehicle Lineup
Google's spin-off Waymo has expanded their autonomous vehicle lineup to include self-driving trucks.
BuzzFeed initially spotted a photograph of Waymo's self-driving truck. When reached for a comment, the company finally confirmed their newest venture.
"Self-driving technology can transport people and things much more safely than we do today and reduce the thousands of trucking-related deaths each year. We're taking out eight years of experience in building self-driving hardware and software and conducting a technical exploration into how our technology can integrate into a truck," a Waymo spokesperson told the publication.
The company further explained that the self-driving truck that was spotted was being manually driven on a public road. Its purpose was to gather essential data. Apart from that, no other specific details were revealed. It is said that Waymo's self-driving truck is still in the early stages of development as the company currently only has one truck in its fleet.
Nevertheless, it's not surprising that Waymo would enter this particular segment. The trucking industry is seen to largely benefit autonomous vehicle technology. First, automated systems are easier to use because trucks normally stick to highway routes where there aren't pedestrians, stop signs or children playing.
Aside from making transport and routes more efficient and safe, self-driving trucks will also help deal with the lack of drivers.
Though not as competitive as the self-driving car segment, Waymo is not alone in the pursuit of self-driving trucks. It joins startup company Embark which officially launched earlier this year as well as its fiercest rival Uber with its autonomous truck unit called Otto that was acquired in August 2016.
While Waymo is leading the pack when it comes to self-driving cars, Uber's Otto may have a slight advantage with autonomous trucking. The company already completed its first delivery using a self-driving truck last year.
Waymo could still catch up though, as it plans to leverage information gained from their self-driving car project.
More importantly, Uber is currently dealing with the lawsuit filed by Waymo. Otto's founder, Anthony Levandowski, is a former Google employee who is accused of stealing trade secrets and using them for Uber's own self-driving projects.
Levandowski has already been fired from Uber, but the company will continue to deal with the lawsuit, which could slow down their autonomous vehicle projects.
