Silicon Valley is betting bots are better for butter
Emailed on December 13th 2019 in The Friday Forward
Say that three times, fast.
This week Plus.ai completed the first coast-to-coast commercial freight trip made by a self-driving truck, according to the company’s press release. Plus.ai announced on Tuesday that its truck traveled from Tulare, California, to Quakertown carrying over 40,000 pounds of Land O’Lakes butter.
The journey took less than three days and spanned 2,800 miles, according to the announcement. It also involved different weather conditions and terrains, including the “expansive plains of Kansas (and) winding roads of the Rockies.” The truck drove “primarily in autonomous mode” and a driver was onboard for monitoring and safety purposes, according to the release.
A human driver only took over for “federally mandated breaks and refueling,” a Plus.ai spokesperson told McClatchy News.
The company’s self-driving system uses cameras, radar, and laser-based technology to help trucks figure out distance. Stanford University PhD students founded the company in 2016 and wanted to focus on self-driving technology and the trucking industry, according to the company’s website.
