While self-driving cars from Google or Ford get most of the credit for capturing the public imagination, commercial uses for autonomous or nearly autonomous vehicles have quietly been putting the concept to work in a business setting. This week, about a dozen trucks from major manufacturers like Volvo and Daimler completed a week of largely autonomous driving across Europe, the first such major exercise on the continent. The trucks traveled more than 2,000km without an issue, and even reduced fuel use by 15 percent by following one another autonomously, a method called “platooning.” Connected by wi-fi, the trucks can reduce congestion by leaving a much smaller gap between vehicles than when humans are at the wheel.
A fleet of trucks just drove themselves across Europe
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