From The Wall Street Journal:
Amazon.com Inc. has created a team focused on driverless-vehicle technology to help navigate the retail giant’s role in the shake-up of transportation, according to people briefed on the matter.
Amazon quietly formed the team, which has comprised about a dozen employees, more than a year ago as part of its broader ambition to transport more of its goods itself. For now, Amazon doesn’t intend to build a fleet of vehicles, according to these people. Instead, the team serves as an in-house think tank to figure out how to leverage autonomous vehicles.
The initiative, still in its early phases, could help the Seattle-based company overcome one of its biggest logistical complications and costs: delivering packages quickly. Amazon could use autonomous vehicles including trucks, forklifts and drones to move goods. In addition, driverless cars could play a broader role in the future of last-mile delivery, enabling easier package drop-offs, experts say.
. . . .
“Amazon has a plan in place to shake up the entire supply chain as we know it today,” said Dave Sullivan, an automotive analyst for consultancy AutoPacific Inc.
. . . .
Humans have a 10-hour limit when driving, but a self-driving truck could drive through the night, said Alex Rodrigues, co-founder of Embark, a startup that aims to develop technology to enable long-haul trucks to operate on the highway. “So instead of taking four days to drive coast to coast, it takes a day and a half.”
Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal (Link may expire)
It’s a strange, exciting time. Between the self-driving vehicles they’re rolling out now and the automatic taxi drones they’ll be launching in Dubai this summer, the advances we’re making in sciences (like genetic engineering, digital and computer technology, and the large hadron collider) it really seems like we’re standing at the edge of a precipice. One more step, and we’re in sci-fi world. Literally anything could happen.
I suppose it’s up to the individual as to whether this is thrilling or terrifying. The one thing for certain is that if we don’t experience some sort of cataclysm in the near future, the changes of the next 100 years will dwarf those of the last 100. Considering where we were 100 years ago, I expect a wild ride.
“That could never happen.” – me, age 10, after reading Stephen King’s “Trucks”
“Welp, humanity’s had a good run.” – me, just now
Don’t worry. I read the other day that some organization is using the Grand Theft Auto games to train their ‘self-driving’ tech.
What could possibly go wrong?
::snerk:: 🙂