FedEx confirms they'll soon have a fleet of self-driving trucks hitting in the road on the Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston. Officials with the shipping company say they’re working with Aurora on the autonomous driver program piloting PACCAR heavy-duty trucks.
However, not everyone is thrilled with the announcement. I-45 is considered one of the most dangerous highways in the country. Personal injury lawyer Quentin Brogdon doesn’t believe this program is a good idea.
“There’s been a whole consistent steady stream of crashes of Tesla’s,” Brogdon said. “There was an Uber crash, for instance, where there was an attendant in the car. So having an attendant in the vehicle guarantees nothing.”
Aurora Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson says the trucks will be safe on the roads. There will also be a backup driver, just in case. However, Brogdon doubts the technology is foolproof.
“Autonomous vehicles crash primarily for two reasons. They can’t always ‘think’ correctly, and they can’t always see correctly,” he explained. “The early ones, for example, were programmed to assume that all drivers on the road would follow the traffic laws. What could be wrong with that assumption?”
So why FedEx is doing it? Brogdon says money. Trucking is a nearly billion dollar a year industry and a third of that is spent on drivers.
No word on when exactly the driverless FedEx trucks will be on Interstate 45.