While everyone else was sitting around talking about whether or not it was possible, OTTO and Budweiser just went ahead and did it. On Tuesday, Otto and Anheuser-Busch announced that they teamed up to deliver 51,744 cans of beer using autonomous driving technologies.

The low-key announcement was a far cry from the huge event put on by Daimler Trucks North America over a year ago when the Freightliner “Inspiration” truck rolled across the Hoover Dam with a massive press presence, orchestral fanfare, and even a huge video projected onto the dam itself.





Still, despite its humble appearance, the Otto delivery marks a huge milestone in transportation history – the first time a load has been delivered in an autonomous truck. Budweiser even commemorated the delivery by printing a small image of an Otto truck with the words “first delivery by self-driving truck” printed on each can of Bud delivered.

The ride started in Fort Collins, CO, traveled through downtown Denver, and ended up in Colorado Springs. The truck wasn’t driving autonomously the whole way, only on the highways, but when self-driving mode was engaged, the “driver” retreated back into the sleeper berth, leaving no one in either the driver or passenger seats.

Walter Martin, a trucker with almost a decade of experience driving big rigs, was in charge of the vehicle. According to a Wired reporter who went for a ride after the delivery was completed, Martin seemed perfectly at ease with hitting the “engage” button to turn on the self-driving system once they were on the highway, getting out of the driver’s seat, and settling into the sleeper berth.

Otto was recently purchased by Uber for an estimated $680 million. The company has a different approach to autonomous driving than its competitors. Where truck manufacturers require a whole new truck to be purchased, Otto plans to sell kits that can be added to existing trucks in order to achieve self-driving capabilities.

Indeed, the kit that allowed the Budweiser delivery is valued at around $30,000. It isn’t designed for use off of highways, so Otto imagines a future where drivers will be local workers, taking over for the truck in the last few miles after hopping in at a designated depot. They would deliver the load, then drive the truck back out to a terminal and send it on its way before hopping in a new truck.

Until the infrastructure for that exists however, Otto sees their technology as offering safety improvements over human-driven vehicles on highways. They also talk up the convenience of having self-driving technology that can let drivers do paperwork, take a break, or even catch up on sleep, all while the truck is rolling.

“Teaming with Otto to deploy self-driving technology on the roads of Colorado is a monumental step forward in advancing safety solutions that will help Colorado move towards zero deaths on our roads,” said a statement from Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shailen Bhatt according to Fleetowner. “Colorado will continue to focus on working with Otto and others on how to safely deploy this technology on our roads.”

According to Wired, not all of the kinks have been ironed out just yet – Martin still needed to buckle the driver seatbelt – even when he’s not in the seat – to keep the system from binging at him the whole journey.

Source: gobytrucknews, truckinginfo, fleetowner, wired, fortune, overdrive, truckersreport, truckersreport

Image Source: anheuserbusch