Embark, a developer of automated trucks, has partnered with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Travis County Sheriff's Office to test self-driving vehicles. This is the first public demonstration of an unmanned truck being stopped by law enforcement on a public road.
The sequence of actions is as follows: a truck with an autopilot recognizes a police car driving behind with special signals turned on and sends a notification to the operator, who decides to stop. The readiness of the unmanned vehicle for testing is signaled by the inscription “Safe to approach” on a special display mounted on the cab.
The documents are in the safe. The police officer can get the safe code from the operator by contacting him at the phone number indicated next to it. After a successful check, the papers are returned back, the operator turns on the autopilot again, and the truck continues to move to its destination.
It turns out that even in such a case as checking the documents of unmanned vehicles, human-to-human interaction is still required. Emily Warren, Head of Public Policy at Embark Trucks, explained why this is happening:
“Law enforcement should always be able to stop commercial vehicles – autonomous or not – to enforce the law. This capability has been designed to work seamlessly within existing law enforcement workflows without requiring new training or investment in technology from first responders.”
A demonstration of the system took place in June of this year on a highway near Austin, Texas.
Embark has been developing software for self-driving trucks since 2016. An autopilot called Embark Driver is supposed to improve the efficiency and safety of freight transport over long distances.
Source: Forbes
