Vijaysai (Vijay) Patnaik, the Product Lead for Waymo's self-driving trucks program, tells HDT Talks Trucking podcast host Jim Park that he's confident the company will be able to safely and responsibly deploy this technology on public roads. These special reports are mid-season special-interest podcasts covering a single topic from several perspectives. He says he's confident the company will be able to safely and responsibly deploy this technology on public roads. In the interview, Vijay explains some of the intricacies of the autonomy that controls the trucks and how it interacts with other road users. He talks about how the autonomy handles some unique situations, and how public perceptions of the technology are changing for the better.

In 2015, I got obsessed with the idea of driverless trucks and started Starsky Robotics. In 2016, we became the first street-legal vehicle to be paid to do real work without a person behind the wheel. In 2018, we became the first street-legal truck to do a fully unmanned run, albeit on a closed road. In 2019, our truck became the first fully-unmanned truck to drive on a live highway. I remain incredibly proud of the product, team, and organization we were able to build; one where PhDs and truck drivers worked side by side, where generational challenges were solved by people with more smarts than pedigree, and where we discovered how the future of logistics will work.

A Starsky truck, combining sensors and self-driving tech and remote operation, does a test run in Florida. When it comes to self-driving trucks, trucks that can tool down the highway without a human behind the wheel, the common perception is that this is a very complex technological problem. It is thought that solving the artificial intelligence problem, computer-based intelligence that can navigate roads as safely or more safely than a human, is a particularly hard nut to crack. Several pundits argue this technology is still probably ten years away. Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, the CEO of Starsky Robotics, begs to differ.

Here's the deal, says Mark Rosekind. Around him, some 400 workers clack away on computers, or roll out yoga mats in the central "town hall" space, or tend to the startup's fleet of self-driving, golf-cart-on-steroids prototypes. The deal is that in spite of all this kind of work--work that has put autonomous vehicles on the streets of cities around the world--regulators don't know how to ensure the potentially life-saving technology won't instead make roads more dangerous. "A company might think it's OK because it checks some box," says Rosekind, whose job is to help Zoox solve this puzzle. Maybe its robo-car has amassed 50 million of miles of data, or has executed a perfect three-point turn, or reliably pulls over when a wailing police car appears behind it.

Multiple companies are rolling out automated semi-trucks, but this technological progression threatens the livelihood of millions of truckers. Uber has been using its self-driving trucks to transport goods in Arizona. SAN FRANCISCO -- The trucks rumble out of California ports laden with freight destined for all points east, an incessant ballet of goods, gear and labor long synonymous with commerce, independence and the open road. But a key player in this quintessentially American dance could soon disappear: the trucker. A new technological dawn is breaking over an industry that moves 70% of the nation's wares, one that promises to impact the lives of 3.5 million truck drivers similar to how tractors revolutionized farming a century ago.

On Tuesday, ride-hailing giant Uber announced it was doing a very cool, techno-futuristic thing: starting a commercial delivery service that included letting a truck drive itself 344 miles across Arizona. Of course, a trained safety operator sat behind the wheel the whole time, ready to take over if anything went awry. Pshaw, says a small startup called Starsky Robotics. In true Florida Man fashion, founder and CEO Stefan Seltz-Axmacher decided to do something much bolder and a bit scarier: In mid-February, in the Sunshine State (where regulations are as lax as those in Arizona), he sent his truck down the road for a 7-mile journey--with nobody inside. Now Starsky expects to start making completely driverless deliveries in Florida by the end of 2018, with at least one truck. Taken together, these two demos offer diverging futures of freight, in which humans play different roles.

A dais stuffed with well-fed lawmakers sure doesn't look like a battlefield, but make no mistake: The long-awaited war between self-driving vehicles and the humans they would replace has begun. And the humans just won the first skirmish. Thursday morning, the Senate released the first version of autonomous vehicle legislation meant to clarify who exactly is in charge of robocar regulations. It comes a few weeks after senators circulated a draft of the rules, and contains a significant difference from the older version: The Senate deleted the original mention of commercial motor vehicles like trucks and buses. Now big vehicles are exempt from the bill--meaning that rules for self-driving trucks are still unclear.

Starsky Robotics is retrofitting large trucks to make them driverless. By the end of the year, the startup hopes it'll be able to operate a truck without a person physically sitting in the vehicle. Starsky Robotics is retrofitting large trucks to make them driverless. By the end of the year, the startup hopes it'll be able to operate a truck without a person physically sitting in the vehicle. Driverless cars could transform the way our country moves, potentially making roads more efficient and possibly saving lives because of fewer traffic accidents.