dumptruck
Latest
Komatsu's self-driving dump truck doesn't even have a cab
Despite the dream of the self-driving car, most autonomous vehicles still have a steering wheel, giving passengers the option to take control at a moments notice. Komatsu's latest dump truck is a bit different -- it doesn't even have a cab for a human operator to sit in. The company calls it the Komatsu Innovative Autonomous Haulage Vehicle. It's a 2,700 horsepower autonomous truck designed to increase productivity by taking drivers out of the equation. Specifically, the company is trying to eliminate the three-point turn by developing a vehicle that doesn't need to see where it's going.
Watch a 4-year-old drive a dump truck by remote control
To prove the toughness of its latest FMX truck, Volvo turned it into an RC racer and handed the "keys" to the luckiest 4-year-old ever. The results were what you'd expect: Pure chaos. To be fair, young Sophie probably guided the vehicle better than we would have at that age (or even now). However, steering a multi-ton rig from afar ain't easy, so she managed to hit obstacles, roll the vehicle into a pit and (safely) crash through a house. At the end of her trip, the vehicle emerged relatively unscathed and was still driveable.
