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Trailer Running by Itself on the Highway Shows Tesla How Autonomous Is Done

There was this joke involving a smart fortwo and a Hummer H1. It said that the small city car crashed into the army-inspired SUV which prompted a message on the latter's display: "New hardware detected. Would you like to install it now?"
Runaway trailer never coming back 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
It's true that some vehicles are so large and so heavy that more or fewer pounds don't make that much of a difference. Take this trailer, for example, and more to the point, the truck it detached from. It looks like the vehicle continued to roll for a while before the driver became aware something was missing. About half of his load, to be more exact.

However, it's worth noting just how cleanly the trailer is running all by itself. The poorly drawn lane separators don't seem to bother it at all as it continues to shave off speed by deploying the auxiliary brake system: scraping the front of its chassis against the asphalt. Of course, should it have the misfortune to hit a pothole or something, all those wooden pallets flying around in all directions would make an excellent show to watch.

But the most bizarre thing here isn't the autonomous trailer, but the people's reaction to it. Everybody seems happy just to drive by, acknowledge its presence, and move on. They ignore the obvious danger it poses and act as if a headless horseman is nothing out of the ordinary. The man who's filming this even sees fit to laugh at the sight of the empty space where the truck pulling it should have been. How about calling 911, dude?

Equally mortifying is the reaction of the truck driver. To be honest, I have no idea what he should have done instead, but crawling on the hard shoulder sure isn't it. What's he planning to do? Jump in front of the trailer as it approaches and hope it somehow miraculously couples back on? Follow it until it stops and then manually attach it to the truck? That actually sounds like a good plan, except he should probably drive behind it, trying to warn other drivers of the hazard.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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