Reckless driving causes many accidents on the road. In line with this, a group of researchers in Ohio created a self-driving truck. It will begin traveling on two Ohio roads by next week. The officials announced their support and details of this investment for innovative transportation technology.
The self-driving truck maker Otto will have the truck travel a 35-mile stretch of U.S Route 33 on Monday at Central Ohio between Dublin and East Liberty, to the Transportation Research Center, an independent testing facility. The truck will go with the normal traffic but a driver will be on it in case things go wrong. Department of Transportation spokesman Matt Bruning clarified last Friday that the number one priority is safety.
The Route 33, a four-lane, divided road is an important piece of the autonomous vehicle research in the state. It will be the testing ground for the new technologies to safely test in real-life traffic. It is aided by a fiber-optic cable network and sensor systems to be installed next year. The Governor John Kasich will discuss the investment to this autonomous vehicle research on Monday before the testing of the truck on the road happens.
Bruning said, "Certainly we think it's going to be one of the foremost automotive research corridors in the world," The self-driving truck is also expected to hit the roads of Ohio Turnpike though Bruning still not confirm the details of when and where will it happen.
State officials believed that Ohio is the perfect fit for this kind of researches for many reasons, including the presence of automotive industry in the state, the partnership with the different university researchers and the seasonal weather changes that would enable them to test a variety of condition in driving in a single place.
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