A poster on Reddit uploaded the the feature image and asked: Saw this on the I-10 today. Is amazon making driverless trucks?
The answer is no. Rather, Amazon is using self-driving trucks made by Embark, but neither company would comment on it.
CNBC spotted the Reddit image and discussed the event in Amazon is hauling cargo in self-driving trucks developed by Embark.
Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues said, “Embark moves freight for a number of major companies on the I-10, however we cannot discuss any company specifically as our relationships are confidential.”
An Amazon spokesperson said, “We are always innovating and working with innovative companies to improve the customer experience and safety of our team. We think successful over-the-road autonomy will create safer roadways and a better work environment for drivers on long-haul runs. ”
In October 2018, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration issued its updated AV3.0 policy, which has helped autonomous vehicle firms such as Embark figure out how to test their technology before driving on public roads and which rules they need to comply with to stay there.
Embark Video
Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues: “Embark, Electrolux, and Ryder are working together running the longest automate freight rout in the world. 650 miles starting in Texas and ending in California. On the Frigidaire line, we drive over 100 million miles a year.”
“Embarks approach is unique. Our automation is designed specifically for the highway. We rely on Ryder’s trucks and drivers to ferry freight between the warehouse and the interchange.
Ryder CEO Chris Nordh: “We manage over 230,000 vehicles across North America serving over half the fortune 500 countries.”
Embark’s trucks pick up at the edge of the interstate and from there, the computer drives it 650 miles, all the way to California.”
For now, Embark says it is testing with a backup driver it it appears not in every case. Regardless, that won’t last long.
“This is the first time someone has demonstrated this end-to-end,” Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues says.
I do not know if the winner will be Embark, Waymo, Otto or some combination. But the technology is advancing rapidly.
Shortly after these technologies are approved, most interstate truck traffic will be driverless.
Embark, Electrolux, Ryder, and Amazon all embraced the point-to-point interstate model I suggested many years ago.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Those systems are nowhere nearly fault tolerant enough to omit the driver.
“ask those involved in self-driving vehicles when we might actually see them carrying passengers in every city, and you’ll get an almost universal answer: Not anytime soon. An optimistic assessment is 10 years.”
Honest to God, I think Mish must jerk off to himself reading his own posts out loud in a mirror.
This is another small incremental step towards driver less. Driver less is not proceeding at a pace predicted by Mish. We’ve barely moved forward in the past year. The trucks still have a driver and the route is about as easy as possible. Straight and flat in a dessert.
A year from now, we’ll hear a similar story and it will be heralded as evidence that we’re about to lose thousands of trucker jobs. When it will just be a rehash of the same story over and over. I predict we’re still many years away from any cost savings with this technology.
Kudos Mish. I’ve been reading your site for many years now, and you nailed this one. Just like your belief that this would happen far sooner than most thought at the time.
Should I be looking forward to next years new season of Ice Road Truckers?
What’s going to be great is the movies (and maybe real life) showing thieves breaking into a driverless truck while it is rolling and emptying the contents onto another truck!
Or hacking the software and then hijacking the truck.
Please be serious
Like it cannot happen today.
Instead of the software, the thieves “hack” (commandeer) the driver or the truck and in the other case, get off the highway and stel the stuff.
What exactly is new in your hypothesis?
Hey Jojo, I agree with you, those movies are coming and I’d love to see one. That very problem already exists on freight trains. Thieves hop a freight train carrying shipping containers, break into containers near the end of the train where it is so far back from the engine the crew can’t see anything, then when they hit pay dirt, they start tossing boxes overboard. Some crews have certain areas they target for tossing, such as an upgrade where the trains are moving slower. Their accomplices are following in trucks and collect the cargo alongside the tracks after the train passes. Pretty much anything at Walmart, Home Depot, etc is carried in shipping containers so thieves target high end items like power tools, jewelry, electronics, etc.
Most track in the US is single track so when trains moving in different directions need the track, one of them pulls into a siding to let the other pass. While the train is waiting in the siding, thieves toss cargo without worry about so much breakage.
If you google “thieves stealing from moving freight trains” you’ll get loads of hits.
I’m sure thieves will soon figure out all kinds of ways to steal from driverless trucks as well. The only limit is the imagination.
Yeah, I know this has been happening for a long time. Used to be a saying when I lived on the east coast of stuff having “fallen off the truck” when being sold out of someone’s car trunk.
I just thought it would be humorous for a self-driven truck to show up at its delivery point completely empty.
There is a new thing out that is very efficient. It can operate 300 trucks with 2 drivers. It is called a train.
…and if you put on the worst clothes you own and stow away on one, with a daypack full of food and water, and a $10 Walmart sleeping bag, it’s one HELL of a fun ride!
Trains would be a great solution if they could run on wheels and not be restricted to train tracks. Oh wait, that would be a truck!
So, you do the long hauls by train to depots and the short delivery hauls by truck. Also, if we ever get high speed rail like the rest of the developed world, we would really have some efficiency.
Pity the poor buggy whip manufacturers.
As I read this story an ad popped up for greatcdltraining.com. This will become my favorite internet irony story. Get a CDL so you can get a job and lose it.
A typical “driverless vehicle” headline: pure baloney. From the CNBC article: “Generally, Embark trucks operate on roads with test drivers on board.” So not a driverless vehicle at all. I am so tired of reading these fake stories. Give me one example of a true driverless vehicle operation please.
again – please look ahead – technology marches on
I should save some of these silly comments for posterity
Good evening Mr. Shedlock,
I do not make any claims about the future “march” of technology, so you need not save my comment for posterity. I would like to see accuracy in the reporting of current events. Although you did not write the misleading Reddit and CNBC headlines, but you did propagate them, right here. Please reconsider.
Respectfully,
D.A.
Please read the title as well as the report very carefully. Specifically in para 3 he states … “The answer is no. Rather, Amazon is using self-driving trucks made by Embark … ”
Somehow, as you read it, you substituted “driverless” in your mind, when you actually read “self-drive”. Mike used the term “self-drive” all along , implying the computer was driving (in one place he explicitly mentions it). You misconstrued it as “driverless”. So, whose fault is that? In fact, he discussed “current” topic of “self-drive” and also mentioned “future” possibility of “driverless”, just to complete the point.
oh my…
“Model 3 owners have taken to social media and online forums to air issues they’ve had with their sedans due to the frigid weather of the last week. Cold conditions are a drain on battery range, no matter the car brand. But other predicaments are particular to Tesla.
Ronak Patel, a CPA auditor in New Jersey, bought a Model 3 last August. He’s driven about 150 miles in the cold over the last few days. “My biggest concern is the cold weather drained my battery 20 to 25 miles overnight and an extra five to ten miles on my drive to work,” he said. “
We won’t be seeing any electric versions of Ice Road Truckers.
With all due respect, in regards to “putting millions out of work,” I’m having a hard time picturing in my mind, either of the two following scenarios:
Two guys sitting around a table brainstorming and saying, “Hey, let’s start up a business that provides jobs for people who are too stupid, lazy, uncreative, uneducated, risk-aversive, uncommitted, or just generally lack the cojones to start up a business of their own.”
The same two guys, after they get a successful business up and running after putting in 100+ hour weeks, taking huge risks, and risking large sums of money, sitting around a table brainstorming and saying, “Hey, let’s invent some technology that puts people out of work who are too stupid, lazy, uncreative, uneducated, risk-aversive, uncommitted, or just generally lack the cojones to start up a business of their own.”
People generally don’t start up a business for the express purpose of putting people to work, or invent technology for the express purpose of putting people out of work. They start up a business for one reason, and one reason only: to make money. Everything else is incidental because if they aren’t making money, they don’t have a business. The fact that people get jobs in the process of them starting a business is just a fortunate byproduct for those of us who lack what it takes to start their own business.
Major kudos to the guys with brainpower enough to invent self-driving trucks!
Increased productivity is always a good thing. It lowers costs and improves standards of living.
There is a shortage of truck drivers.
I still think it’s too early to celebrate putting millions out of work. Particularly in this economic environment. But whatever.