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Startup Wants To Use Remote Control Tech To Improve Quality Of Life For Truckers

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A new startup has entered the increasingly crowded autonomous truck market — but this one hopes to stand out from the crowd by giving truckers a chance at a better quality of life through the use of remote control technology.

Startup To Combine Remote Control Tech With Autonomous Driving Tech

California-based Starsky Robotics has plans to use dual technology to transform trucking as we know it. Like many of the other autonomous truck startups, they’ll use cameras and radar for long haul highway driving. Then, when their trucks exit the highway, a skilled human driver will take over using remote control driving technology to guide the trucks to their destinations.

Company Hopes To Make Life Better For Truck Drivers

The remote control truck drivers will be employed by Starsky Robotics and their services will be contracted out to the trucking companies who adopt the technology. The startup’s founders say that a single driver could be in charge of 10 – 30 trucks.

The company says that it plans to hire truck drivers with at least five years of experience and a perfect driving record. They say that they would pay their remote control operators  the same amount that they could expect to make as long haul drivers.

Starsky Robotics leaders say that the technology has potential to dramatically increase the quality of lives for truckers, essentially converting them into office workers, and would allow them to sleep in their own beds every night.

The company has already made a paying run, hauling a load of milk crates over 100 miles.

For now, Starsky Robotics is keeping a safety truck driver in the cab, but they expect to be completely driverless by the end of the year.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEmj6Wks7c” width=”700″ height=”500″]http://youtu.be/qXEQ7SaWgw8[/su_youtube]

Sources:
Reuters
Stefan Seltz-Axmacher
Tech Crunch
Fortune

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