In case you have not heard about Otto, they have delivered their first shipment without a driver at the wheel of an 18-wheeler. The first thing shipped by the world’s first self-driving truck was a load of 50,000 beers, which were taken straight from the Budweiser factory, and driven to Colorado Springs.
Uber’s launch of the new website was not generous on details, and the only choices you have on the page involve entering your e-mail to find out more, when the time comes, about its benefits for carriers and shippers.
Anyone interested in learning more can just e-mail them, but the representatives of the company have already replied to Inverse that they do not have “any new information to share at the moment.” They did mention that the new year will bring more on the topic, and we cannot wait to learn more.
We would like to note that a menu from that website, which was reserved for shippers, leads to Uber’s dashboard for users and drivers. That has led us to believe that the ride-sharing startup from San Francisco probably plans to allow truckers to carry things for businesses and even regular people using a proprietary app.
At the moment, it is unclear whether Uber wants to allow the regular Joe to schedule a truck to move his or her things with just a few taps in an app, but it sure looks like that is something that will eventually be available.
At the same time, Otto is a start-up focused on developing self-driving trucks, and Uber is already working on (and offering rides in) self-driving cars.
With two and two put together, Uber might be the cog that spins transportation into the next century through apps and self-driving 18-wheelers.
Don’t expect that revolution to come too soon, as The Teamsters are North America’s strongest union, and self-driving trucks may take up many jobs from the backbone of the USA. However, those trucks might still have a human inside them for many years, because there’s more to operating a truck than just driving it.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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