US Postal Service will test unmanned trucks

US Postal Service (USPS) underthe competition she had selected chose a contractor to test unmanned trucks intended for long-haul cargo. She became the company TuSimple, based in San Diego. Tests of trucks will take place on the route between the cities of Phoenix and Dallas. Two distribution centers located in the southwestern United States divides a distance of more than 1600 kilometers. The journey takes 22 hours and runs mainly along the highways.

A total of unmanned trucks,endowed with a fourth level of autonomy for two weeks, the pilot program must make five trips back and forth. According to the test results, it will become clearer how and in what form the drones will come to a major US transportation service.

What is the fourth level of autonomy?

The so-called fourth level of autonomyimplies that the machine is controlled automatically, but the driver must be at the wheel, ready to take control at any time. In this case, there will be two security engineers in the cockpit of each unmanned lorry, who will alternately monitor the situation while the drones carry out their delivery task between two USPS distribution centers.

The company TuSimple call this experimentimportant milestone in the development of commercial unmanned cargo transportation. According to its logisticians, 60 percent of the total domestic economic activity in the United States takes place precisely on the interstate 10 (I-10) highway passing through eight states and is the main artery of freight between Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas.

It should be added that the authorities of Arizona alreadya law was passed allowing self-driving cars to be used on its territory. For Texas, there are rules according to which the driver must be a person who is ready to take control. The issue of unmanned vehicles has not yet been discussed in the legislation of New Mexico, which means there is no legal basis for them yet.

Unmanned vehicles in Europe

Recall that recently in Switzerland on the roadspublic use, the first electric self-driving T-Pod truck from Einride. It is used by the DB Schenker International Logistics Service Provider. Permission to operate the truck was issued until December 31, 2020. In the future, the company plans to expand the fleet of unmanned trucks to 200 units, and then go with them to the international market, including the US market.

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