The exit ramp is a long, curving slope, and you have to make sure the 50-foot big rig you’re driving carefully navigates the bend and doesn’t fly out of control at a high speed.
But the thing is, you’re not actually there. You’re in a room in Silicon Valley, watching the ramp unfold in front of you on several screens. That heavy load you’re carrying is thousands of miles away in Florida.
Welcome to teleoperated driving, or remote-controlled driving with a human in front of a steering wheel, brake, and gas pedals, and a “windshield” plastered with monitors. It’s a method that allows autonomous vehicles to operate without anyone inside. Instead, there’s a watchful remote driver, or operator,… More.
Driving a truck is really hard, Seltz-Axmacher admits. Doing it through remote control is maybe just as difficult, until you’ve had enough training. After attempting to remotely back up a 50-foot long trailer between two parked trucks, for instance, he said he returned to the professional truckers with his tail between his legs. On the flip side, long-time truck drivers still require practice for remote control driving and go through one-week trainings to get used to operating a truck from in front of a monitor instead of the road.
