Otto and Budweiser report “world’s first shipment by a self-driving truck”

Autonomous vehicle technology company Otto and Budweiser announced today (25 October) that they have “accomplished a major milestone with the completion of the world’s first shipment by a self-driving truck”. In a notice posted on its official blog, Otto (which was recently aquired by Uber) said: “In partnership with Anheuser-Busch, and with full support from the State of Colorado, we hauled 51,744 cans of Budweiser from Fort Collins, through downtown Denver, to Colorado Springs.

“By using cameras, radar, and lidar sensors mounted on the vehicle to “see” the road, Otto’s system controlled the acceleration, braking, and steering of the truck to carry the beer exit-to-exit without any human intervention.

“In fact, our professional driver was out of the driver’s seat for the entire 120-mile journey down I-25, monitoring the self-driving system from the sleeper berth in the back.”

Otto signed off its blog by promising that this is just the start of the journey: “Our partnership with Anheuser-Busch is just beginning, and our companies are excited to transform commercial transportation together. If you’d like to be a part of this transformation, sign up at freight.uber.com or email us at freight@uber.com.”