One of the most serious dangers on the road relates to a semitruck driver who falls asleep. A sleeping driver is likely to drive off the road, drive into oncoming traffic or cause a catastrophic and fatal accident. This is why federal lawmakers have created strict guidelines that require truckers to receive a certain amount of rest each week. However, the rest guidelines don’t eliminate all sleepy driving risks, because these kinds of accidents continue to happen throughout the nation.
Interestingly, Uber might have the solution to stop sleepy truckers from causing accidents. It recently released a line of automated semitrucks that virtually drive themselves down the highway. The trucks are already in use in California, and now they’re set to be used in Arizona.
These self-driven semitrucks technically drive themselves, but Uber is including a driver in each of them. The driver is there to take over the controls should an emergency situation happen. The driver also takes over to navigate traffic once the semi makes it to town.
Uber is by no means unique in its attempts to automate semitrucks. Currently, Volvo, Daimler, Waymo and Tesla appear to be leading corporate players in the space. In a decade, Montana drivers could find themselves sharing the interstates with numerous kinds of self-driven big rigs.
The reality of self-driving cars certainly causes one to wonder about personal injury law and how a Montana court would decide a lawsuit relating to injuries caused by a self-driving semitruck. It’s probably that the manufacturer of the semitruck could be partly to blame.
Source: Wired, “Uber’s Self-Driving Trucks Hinges on Logistics,” Alex Davies, March 06, 2018