Across northern Texas, seemingly normal 18-wheeler trucks are on the roads delivering packages and produce for major companies like FedEx — but instead of being driven by experienced drivers, these 35,000-pound vehicles are completely autonomous.
For the past three years, self-driving 18-wheelers have been tested on the Texas freeways with a human in the passenger seat to ensure nothing goes wrong. But if everything goes to plan for Aurora Innovations, there could be vehicles on the road with completely empty cabs by the end of the year.
The plan has been met with both enthusiasm and skepticism, with some arguing that this is the future of the economy, and others raising questions about increased danger and the impact the new technology could have on workers.
"I believe the world was born ready for a truck like this," Ossa Fisher, the president of Aurora Innovations told KTVT. "We're very confident in our ability to navigate in clear weather, misty weather, foggy weather, and that's how we are going to start."
The autonomous trucks are outfitted with 25 cameras, as well as sensors and antennae that will transmit information to the vehicles. Aurora claims there has only been one minor crash that law enforcement attributed to another vehicle on the road.
The company says trucks with totally empty cabs will roll out in Texas before the end of the year, according to KTVT.
Many critics, however, have pointed to the disastrous rollouts of self-driving cars in cities like San Francisco. The vehicles have injured pedestrians and caused massive traffic backups.
"Even with these small vehicles, it has been a disaster," Peter Finn, a vice president of the Teamsters Local Union 856, which represents truck drivers, told the Washington Post. "The notion that there is going to be no human being in large trucks barreling down the highways absolutely frightens me."
Nat Beuse, Aurora's chief safety officer, insists that the company has learned from the mistakes of other autonomous vehicle companies and is taking pains to ensure the rollout goes safely and smoothly. Technically, any state that hasn't explicitly banned the technology has to allow it on the road but Beuse says that Aurora is not being reckless with its execution.
"The federal government has been clear in that unless a state says you can't deploy, you can. But that doesn't mean as a company we don't have responsibilities," he told the Washington Post. "This is not a science experiment."
Fisher, who holds a commercial driver's license, told KTVT that she trusts "the Aurora driver more than I trust myself." But other commercial drivers don't share her confidence.
"It's too new for me to trust," Texas truck driver Richard Gaskill told the Washington Post. "I don't like the idea of these being out there taking our jobs."
