Embark’s goal isn’t t replace the driver entirely, however: It just wants to make it possible for long-haul trips to be managed by fewer drivers, eliminating the need for team driving, for instance, and helping to address a lack of available qualified human drivers for this kind of shipping. Drivers are still expected to help with the parts of the route that don’t involve freeway and driving, but still the efficiency gains and trip time benefits would be huge once their technology is in service.
This demonstration also helps Embark prove out some of the aspects of its business that depart from what its competitors are doing. The startup doesn’t use high-resolution, detailed maps of its route to inform its autonomous system, for instance; instead, it relies entirely on sensor data and its onboard machine learning.
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