back to article Uber's robo-truck makes first delivery of ... Budweiser in Colorado

A truck using Uber’s latest automated driving system has made its first commercial delivery after shipping 45,000 cans of beer Bud on public freeways with no one at the wheel. The truckload of fizzy brew was shipped from an Anheuser-Busch warehouse in Fort Collins, Colorado, to a distributor in Colorado Springs about 140 miles …

  1. Adam Foxton

    If it can't cope with things like pedestrians and roadkill

    What the hell is it doing on public roads?

    I understand, highway driving is- for the most part- simple. Especially for trucks. Maintain a constant speed in the left-hand lane (or right-hand lane for some odd bits of the world). Don't leave your lane, slow down if you're going to hit anything.

    But in those circumstances a human's pretty safe too. It's only (mainly) when they've been lulled into a false sense of security and then things change that there are problems. So designing in this false sense of security seems to me to be a mistake. It HAS to be able to cope with a deer crossing the road, or an unexpected icy / oily patch or a tyre blowing out. If it can't cope with any eventuality you could reasonably throw at it, it shouldn't be allowed on any roads without the course being closed to public traffic.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If it can't cope with things like pedestrians and roadkill

      "But in those circumstances a human's pretty safe too"

      Erm, no they aren't. Trucks don't kill people humans do ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rShn-OYV8Yg

    2. Public Citizen
      Mushroom

      Re: If it can't cope with things like pedestrians and roadkill

      Wait until the first time an UBER Truck gets "volunteered" to be part of a Hells Angels initiation run, something that occasionally happens to Long Haul Drivers on long lonely stretches of the Interstate Highway System in the USA on dark and otherwise average nights.

      The object of the H.A. "Game" is to drive up close to the side of the rig [very close] then cut in front of the truck while speeding up. The plebes have to be close enough to reach out and touch [without stretching] the bumper of the speeding truck as they cut in front of the rig.

      I really don't think that UBER has planned into their software the possibility of their truck being an unwilling participant in such "games" and that the truck will slow at each "alarm" caused by the successive demonstrations of bravado. Eventually [won't take long for some of the more creative minds in groups such as the H.A.] will figure out they can hijack a cargo by using this technique to stop the truck and then pilfering any high value items, or the entire trailer, then torch the tractor.

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: If it can't cope with things like pedestrians and roadkill

      "But in those circumstances a human's pretty safe too."

      No. Humans get bored shitless of driving at the same speed or staying behind the same truck for 100 miles and do things like 4mile-long overtakes or driving off the road when there's a bend, or running at non-fuel-consumption-optimal speeds (ie, with the loud pedal mashed to the floor and the limiter controlling the road speed)

      Autonomous driving makes more sense in a big rig first, at least partly because there's a lot more space to fit sensors and CPUs and partly because (as with aircraft) saving a bit on fuel makes a big difference to fleet operational costs.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Unlikely to be popular with the Teamsters union

    Who've a long history of being very friendly with some sections of the Italian american community*

    *Allegedly.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Unlikely to be popular with the Teamsters union

      So long as they get the same rate for all 8 hours they're in the cab... but the truck stops are going to be pissed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Unlikely to be popular with the Teamsters union

        Except not paying someone to be in the cab is the long term goal of these projects and why businesses are interested in them.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Unlikely to be popular with the Teamsters union

          You think they're going to pull in to automated pit lanes to pick up their assigned drivers to take them the last 10 miles of their trip through the town? A bit line a chain horse or a harbour pilot?

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            Re: Unlikely to be popular with the Teamsters union

            "A bit line a chain horse or a harbour pilot?"

            That's what I was thinking. Groups of scruffy unemployed truck drivers crowding around the motorway exit slips/freeway offramps hoping to be picked for a few hours work of driving the truck to it's destination, unloading/loading, then driving it back to the motorway/freeway. All in grainy black and white 1930s depression style.

            If only we had rail freight terminals in every large city/town then a couple guys could haul the equivalent of a couple of hundred trucks, dropping off and picking up loads and you'd only need drivers for the last few miles and all without special self driving vehicles or special adjustments to the road network.

  3. DNTP
    Pint

    45k cans of Bud

    Obviously uncertain about the performance of their robotruck, Uber opted to play it safe and use an expendable, valueless, and chemically inert test product.

    Icon for irony value.

  4. Roger Lipscombe

    They'll make everyone unemployed

    This seems appropriate: Self-Driving Trucks Are Going to Hit Us Like a Human-Driven Truck.

    1. Steve Foster
      Headmaster

      Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

      Ah, yes, just as the plough, the jacquard loom, and every other thing we've invented over the centuries has done before.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

        So what is the replacement job for all those millions of truck drivers who will be unemployed when this shit happens?

        Economies require people to earn money doing jobs so you can sell them stuff that they consume thus driving money around the system. Make a large proportion of that workforce unemployed and you will pretty much destroy the economy just so that one shit company can save paying salaries.

        1. Dr. Mouse

          Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

          Do you really think that, overnight, every company will replace their entire fleet with these?

          It will happen over a number of years. Over this time, demand for truck drivers will fall, gradually, which will delay investment by the latecomers. The drivers will, therefore, be able to gradually reskill themselves to work in other jobs. Those who don't will, eventually, be out of work.

          Automation has been happening for well over a century. The jobs landscape changes all the time. People need to be aware of this, and be willing to adapt to suit the market.

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

          "So what is the replacement job for all those millions of truck drivers who will be unemployed when this shit happens?"

          Here in the UK, the retirement rate of HGV drivers is a little higher than the recruitment rate already. The barrier is the poor image of the industry and the hefty cost of obtaining and keeping a licence. I can see the recruitment rate dropping off more if there's the chance of self-driving trucks becoming legal and popular.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

          "So what is the replacement job for all those millions of truck drivers who will be unemployed when this shit happens?"

          Deliveroo and Mini Cabs, that's what every useless driver in the UK does

          1. Alan Brown Silver badge

            Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

            Minicabs and black cabs will be the second great casualty of robot drivers.

            Robots are cheaper than humans, don't get tired, don't need shift breaks and don't rabbit on inanely about immigrants.

        4. CraPo

          Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

          Luddite

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: They'll make everyone unemployed

      The estimate in 2012 was that robot drivers will make at least 400 million people redundant worldwide and big rigs are where it'll be felt most keenly.

      Whilst simultaneously reducing the road toll by at least 90% - virtually all crashes are caused by human error.

      The moment robot drivers are "good enough" (they don't need to be perfect, just better than humans for most tasks and that's not hard), you'll see insurance premiums for having a monkey behind the wheel skyrocket.

  5. Charles 9

    Now, admitted American mass-market beer is thin, but it's apparently what sells. Bud Light is IINM the best selling beer in a America which tells you something. And it's not like more robust options aren't available, either.

    1. DavCrav

      "Now, admitted American mass-market beer is thin, but it's apparently what sells. Bud Light is IINM the best selling beer in a America which tells you something. And it's not like more robust options aren't available, either."

      That's obviously false, because Bud Light isn't a beer in the first place.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

        fucking close to water.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

          But it's NOT water. AND it sells. Even in the presence of more robust beers. AND it's not the cheapest beer, either. So what does that tell you?

          1. Dr. Mouse

            Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

            So what does that tell you?

            That Yanks wouldn't know a good beer if it was tipped over their heads?

            1. Charles 9

              Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

              "That Yanks wouldn't know a good beer if it was tipped over their heads?"

              Then explain the craft beer movement.

              What this tells me is that Yanks are telling more robust brews to take a hike. They don't WANT a strong brew. They want something light while still giving them the relaxing effect of alcohol (thus they don't want water). Put it this way. This is beer to them and they'll keep it, thank you. If they want stronger beer, they'll buy stronger beer from the local craft brewer, but that's not their bottle of brew, so put a cap on it.

              1. Cris E

                Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

                You're wrong. It should tell you that the American market is very, very large and made up of a wide variety of tastes. It so happens that frat boys with a lot of disposable money have a hankering for lots of cheap, light beer. And the intersection of their large population with their huge consumption puts terrible beer at the top of the charts. Middle aged slobs like me go out and drink 2-3 heavy, expensive beers while lounging with friends instead of shotgunning eight Natural Lights in a rental house basement to the cheers of other wasted nineteen year olds. Don't over-complicate these things.

                1. Charles 9

                  Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

                  I'm not. But they outnumber you. Plus I recall taste has little to do with the alcohol content, thus other popular "beers" among the party crowds are malt liquors, particularly in 40's. And let's not forget the cheap "bum wines" people drink when they just wanna get drunk quick, taste be damned.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

                    And let's not forget the cheap "bum wines" people drink when they just wanna get drunk quick, taste be damned.

                    After the second or third swallow, you can't taste it anyway ;)

          2. Kiwi

            Re: Budweiser Light is like making love to a beautiful woman in a canoe...

            So what does that tell you?

            Given the substance-of-no-substance mentioned in this thread, and given who they have as their main candidates for their upcoming tomfoolery, I'd say it tells us that mental health issues are significant and extremely common over there. And that's putting it mildly!

  6. Alister

    Until the truck can park the trailer in the loading bay at it's destination, you can't say it "delivered" anything, it just transported it from point A to point B.

    And for any proper delivery vehicle, like for instance a supermarket truck, it's the driver who unloads the cages at each drop off. Let's see your Uber truck do that!

    1. waldo kitty
      Boffin

      And for any proper delivery vehicle, like for instance a supermarket truck, it's the driver who unloads the cages at each drop off. Let's see your Uber truck do that!

      easy enough to do... freight is on pallets with rollers... back it in, tip it up, dump it out in a controlled manner... the truck only need signal that it is in place and ready for the lift...

      let the humans inside deal with moving the freight to where it needs to go and placing the pallets elsewhere since the truck doesn't need them any more... they will get more next time and there can even be an industry built around picking up and returning these pallets to the freight loading facilities...

      http://www.aminternationaltnllc.com/pictures.html

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "easy enough to do... freight is on pallets with rollers... back it in, tip it up, dump it out in a controlled manner... the truck only need signal that it is in place and ready for the lift..."

        Assuming it's a full load every time, that might work. A significant number of loads, eg beer to supermarkets, are not full loads. In fact it's unlikely to even just be a single product. Supermarkets tend to do their own deliveries to stores with all products on one truck and each truck doing multiple drops other than to the very largest superstores. Then there's all the small town and village stores where the unloading is often in a very small space where the truck has to stop traffic while it is very, very carefully backed into some unusual space so unloading can happen without blocking the road for the duration. Having seen some of those type of deliveries (and waited in the queues for 10 minutes while the truck manoeuvres), I have some admiration for the skills of many of these drivers.

        A multi-drop, multi-product delivery will still need to be manually done, or some quite expensive, likely quite heavy, equipment will need to be installed in the trailers, massively ramping up the start-up costs.

        1. Richard Crossley
          Boffin

          This is the beginning...

          This is from about 25 years ago, I didn't pursue it as a career, but since I worked in the offices organising the incoming and outgoing loads, this is the insight I received.

          "Assuming it's a full load every time, that might work. A significant number of loads, eg beer to supermarkets, are not full loads."

          Suppliers to the warehouse were mostly full loads. The warehouse staff would unload the delivery trailer whilst the driver had his "break", a legal requirement.

          "Supermarkets tend to do their own deliveries to stores with all products on one truck and each truck doing multiple drops other than to the very largest superstores"

          Each store received at least 2 deliveries per day; "chilled/frozen" and "ambient". If there were special offers or some sort of promotion there would be extra deliveries. I imagine the frequency of the deliveries increased at Christmas and other large festivals/holiday periods. Most of the trucks in the yard were 38 ton articulated vehicles (semis to our North American chums).

          There were a fleet of smaller, "Less Than a Load", vehicles for hard to reach/smaller stores.

          I see this as the beginning of a significant change in the trucking industry in less populated parts of the World. Possibly the largest expense of trucking is the driver. The driver needs compensation, needs a licence which must be maintained and they will probably cost more than the capital cost of the tractor/rig. With Otto doing most of the highway driving the driver will only be needed for the more awkward parts of the journey.

          The reality is and has been demonstrated by this exercise, the technical part is relatively easy, the cultural and legal hurdles will be much more challenging, but I expect they will be overcome. At the moment Otto drives with a police escort, cars used to be escorted by a human with a flag.

          1. Cris E

            Re: This is the beginning...

            There are already large trucking depots on some state borders for assembling and breaking up triple hitch hauls, and there are yards outside cities for shifting trailers and loads before heading into town. These trucks could easily fit into a distribution yard to distribution yard model where large unit, long haul gets automated and local cartage stays manual. Think of auto-driven rigs filling the role of trains and multi-modal without the constraints of rail.

            1. Alan Brown Silver badge

              Re: This is the beginning...

              "There are already large trucking depots on some state borders for assembling and breaking up triple hitch hauls, and there are yards outside cities for shifting trailers and loads before heading into town. "

              You can and should expect such yards to become the norm everywhere. This model has been under development for several decades and robot drivers is a natural fit. Most of the big rig makers have been proposing "freeway-only" designs to service marshalling yards for a long time.

            2. Kiwi

              Re: This is the beginning...

              without the constraints of rail

              Yes.. Something with little to no competing traffic, said traffic either being well out of the way or on a different line, the ability to handle much larger loads with comparitively less fuel use (ie much more "eco friendly" or "smaller carbon footprint" and whatnot (assuming existing lines are used), and of course much less pedestrian interference... Yes, rail is much more "constrained" than road...

        2. Charles 9

          "Supermarkets tend to do their own deliveries to stores with all products on one truck and each truck doing multiple drops other than to the very largest superstores."

          That may be true with groceries but alcohol is a controlled substance. Due to licensing issues (license to brew, license to deliver, license to sell, etc.), beer tends to be delivered from authorized (and licensed) distributors with chains of trust going all the way up to the original brewers. These brewers deliver to many different stores with different profiles: from the small mom-and-pop, to the typical C-store, to your average supermarket, to the big-box hypermarkets, and each load is different in both size and composition. One size can't fit all because of the demographics.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't count on that, at the store I worked at in college the staff at the local store unloaded the trucks, remember that someone with a license to drive that style truck is expensive relative to the dozens to hundreds of high school and college kids are being paid minimum wage at the big box stores. You can get similarly cheap labor at gas stations to fill the tanks and light service like cleaning glass/whatever in front of the cameras.

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "And for any proper delivery vehicle, like for instance a supermarket truck, it's the driver who unloads the cages at each drop off. "

      You're confusing "haulage" with "drayage"

      You can bet that haulage will see drivers replaced long before drayage does. Haulage drivers don't load or unload their cargo either.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Autonomous control systems are all about optimal outcomes...

    But what do you do when the optimal outcome is that both Uber and Budweiser go out of business? Will autonomous Bud-hauling Uber trucks be intelligent enough to realize that the best thing for society would be to drive themselves off the edge of a canyon somewhere? :)

  8. IR

    It's called Otto? Named after the bus driver on the Simpsons?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Terminator

      There's also Otto the autopilot on the space liner in "Wall-E"

      1. Dwarf

        Is there any irony in that an anagram of otto is toot, which is a little lame for the sound of the horn on 40 tonne's of steel steaming down the highway.

        Surely the thing should be called HONK, which sounds a lot more manly. Oddly enough the similar re-arrangement of those letters in a similar manner yields Knoh, which is very similar to Know.

        I really hope that the engineers behind all of these automated vehicles really KNOW what they are doing and aren't being led by marketing types as is happening in the rest of the gadget space. Having a watch crash or getting hacked is a completely different ball game to a fast moving chunk of steel with the ability to mow down bunch of wrongly placed people or animals, *

        * - I might be tempted to make an exception for marketing people involved in recent product specifications..

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "Surely the thing should be called HONK, which sounds a lot more manly."

          No, because it needs to be anagram to keep the faith, so the truck should be called Kohn, which like Uber, sounds a bit German, then people could comment that Kohn is an anagram of honk :-)

          1. Swarthy

            KOOOHHHHNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

        2. Charles 9

          "Is there any irony in that an anagram of otto is toot, which is a little lame for the sound of the horn on 40 tonne's of steel steaming down the highway."

          I thought the reason for the name was because Otto is a Palindrome.

    2. Clive Galway

      Otto was also the name of the autopilot in Airplane!

      Which, as any fule kno, is the funniest film ever made, bar none. RIP Leslie Nielsen

    3. Kiwi
      Devil

      Otto? Much more disturbing...

      Recently started appreciating the quality of 1980's TV.

      By watching "Automan".

      Dang we had some shit on TV back then!

      Anyway... The lead character on that was often called "Otto" as if that was his first name.

      Like the show, I got a feeling these things may be short lived. Thankfully.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is the future

    Trucks and buses and planes and trains are big metal tubes going point to point with some tricky bits at the beginning and end. Expect a lot of sturm und drang over the next ten years as the job of driving these things is replaced by a computer. It won't be long until truckers are only compensated on the hours spent on the difficult bits and not the whole run...and eventually they won't be needed at all.

    It'll be particularly interesting to see how the commercial pilots handle this when they get around to planes. Pilots have a long history of considering themselves special (lots of training, prestige job, high salaries) and boy they will not take kindly to being relegated.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @bobajob12 - Re: This is the future

      If the pilot is like the ones from TACA Flight 110, Air Transat Flight 236 or US Airways Flight 1549 they worth tenfold their weight in pure gold. I strongly doubt a bunch of pizza fueled monkey coders from Google or any other tech company would be able to come up with similar performance. Nah, they're only interested at slurping your personal and traveling info in order to pump idiotic, useless ads while you're attached to your seat.

      Sorry but I'll take the human pilot anytime over whatever devops could cobble.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: @bobajob12 - This is the future

        For every flight you can list that was saved by pilot action, I can probably point to a bunch of tragic incidents that were CAUSED by pilot error. And note I said error, not deliberate action like 9/11.

        Here's 11 for starters. Wikipedia also keeps tables of articles about airliner incidents, and it goes back a ways. Quite a few are the result of pilot error (like Controlled Flight Into Terrain).

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: This is the future

      > Pilots have a long history of considering themselves special (lots of training, prestige job, high salaries)

      Pilots have a long history of getting themselves into mind-stupifying levels of debt and working insane hours to qualify for those jobs. The reason they demand the salaries is to pay it all off.

      Remember that when you complain about the rates your UK university-educated (and debt-laden) graduates are demanding for XYZ job.

  10. abedarts

    Just development

    <Nevertheless, it does show the direction Uber is taking its self-driving car research. Rather than go fully autonomous, Uber will hire human drivers to do the difficult driving, refuelling and loading, and rely on software for the more simple stuff.>

    A strange view, surely Uber et al are taking this step by step in the same way that all development is done. They don't want human drivers at all, not for the easy bits nor for the difficult bits, but the state of the art and the views of society and government don't make that practical quite yet.

    In a few years we will be comfortable with transportation and many other tricky tasks being done by computers and it won't be many years after that when we will be wondering how on earth humans did these things. Like navigating around the world with nothing but a sextant.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Just development

      "we will be wondering how on earth humans did these things. Like navigating around the world with nothing but a sextant."

      There will always be sandal wearing beardies available for TV documentaries to demonstrate the finer points of flint knapping.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Just development

      "Uber will hire human drivers to do the difficult driving, refuelling and loading, "

      Haulage truck pulls into the yard, by the pumps. Monkey fills it up, checks the tyres, navigates it around the yard and docks it, then gets into another truck and returns to pump court and exits, waiting for for next truck.

      Haulage truck drives off to destination, sans monkey.

      Monkeys are happy - they can sleep in their own bed each night.

      Bosses are happy. They can pay monkeys less than drivers, 8 hours are a time (3 shifts) for less than drivers and no restrictions on operating hours thanks to robots doing the longhaul stuff.

  11. Frank N. Stein

    NO

    I will pass on the whole self driving vehicle thing. Sure, trucking companies, Uber, and Lyft would love to save money on human drivers.

  12. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Considering how American truck drivers operate with very little sleep and lots of caffeine and other stimulants, I welcome our new 80,000lb overlords.

    This is probably also the easiest driving to automate, since it's the same long-distance freeway driving repeated over and over.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      If you've ever watched Ice Road Truckers or Highway Thru Hell, you'll know it's not all that simple. But overly long shifts etc are real enough. Highway Thru Hell certainly shows the numbers of idiots on the roads with little to no experience of weather conditions too. It seems like at least half the recovery jobs they go to are because drivers don't know when to put the snow chains on, how to put them on properly, or the right number to use for the conditions.

      I can't see robo-trucks handling those conditions any time soon. Least of all being able to pull over and deploy robot arms to install the snow chains.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait - driver in the back seat???

    WTF? Google is required to have a driver at the wheel in their little coupe-car thing that does a max of 25 mph and 10-ton Otto is allowed to barrel (pun intended) down the highway at 60mph with no one near the wheel? I get that limited-access highways present less opportunity for unforeseen circumstances, but we're still TESTING here aren't we?

    1. 404
      Boffin

      Re: Wait - driver in the back seat???

      Most likely blockers in front and trailers in the form of cars/trucks with hazard lights on...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC - Re: Wait - driver in the back seat???

      Yes, my friend, testing on humans. I wonder if this is legal.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: @AC - Wait - driver in the back seat???

        They tested Budweiser on humans? Surely there's a human rights convention about that.

  14. Triggerfish

    This and AI

    Just means we are a few short steps from a bad Stephen King movie.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Overdrive

  15. Dwarf

    Should I be worried ...

    By the large yellow emergency stop button on the dashboard and the lack of anyone within close proximity to press it ??

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Robot delivered beer

    So does that mean that when the truck shows up the pub owner is supposed to go out and help himself?

    Of course not, they will still need someone to man the trucks and do that (and make sure random people don't just walk off with product) so what do you gain by not having a driver?

    For deliveries to grocery stores where they will have a staff on hand to bring the beer inside that might work, but the self drivers will have to be pretty smart to back into the loading docks, wait in line behind other trucks (some of which will be human driven) and so forth.

    1. GrumpyOldBloke

      Re: Robot delivered beer

      Remote control the tricky bits out of a dark room somewhere until such time as the truck learns to do them itself. The more interesting part is getting the truck to consume bud as its human occupant would have lest some of the estimated $50M savings be flushed away as lost sales.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unintended consequences

    It'll be interesting to see what happens to the roadside economies that serve long distance drivers when all this self-driving malarkey goes normal. Will truck stops go out of business? Will hookers lose business? There's a lot riding on this.

    Side note: if you want to be depressed, count the weird porno/XXX shacks along the interstates in Pennsylvania.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Unintended consequences

      Just keep-on f... truckin'.

    2. disgruntled yank

      Re: Unintended consequences

      Ah, but if you want to be alarmed, count the "Aggressive DUI Defense" billboards along other stretches of road in Pennsylvania. I can remember thinking how little I'd care to be on 11/15 around Liverpool on a Saturday night.

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Unintended consequences

      "Side note: if you want to be depressed, count the weird porno/XXX shacks along the interstates in Pennsylvania."

      Ah, that might explain why some of the defunct Little Chef restaurants on the UKs trunk roads are now Pulse and Cocktails sex shops. I always thought it a bit of an odd location for that sort of business. You may have provided the answer.

      Robo-trucks might kill their business. I wonder if there'll be a spate of sexily clad young women sabotaging these trucks?

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: I wonder if there'll be a spate of sexily clad young women sabotaging these trucks?

        I'm all for it. More women in STEM, bring it on!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Unintended consequences

      Hmm...the most memorable thing I know about driving I-95 in North Carolina happens to be a topless bar just off the Interstate in the middle of nowhere. Exit number slips my mind and it isn't a low-number state highway in any event.

  18. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    "...a strangely-inevitable twist of karmic-symmetry..."

    Perhaps next week, in a bizarre but strangely-inevitable twist of karmic-symmetry, the self-driving beer truck will crash directly into the side of a Tesla Model S; a car that will just happen to have been carrying a certain Elon Musk. The Tesla will itself will have been Autopilotcidentally (™) crossing directly across the path of the gently-speeding beer-goggle truck, and the beer truck will have inexplicably been "unable to distinguish" the lovely car from the similar colour background.

    (™ "Autopilotcidentally" <- I just made that up. I think it'll go far.)

  19. tiggity Silver badge

    Otto

    So essentially Otto is equivalent of Tesla autopilot (or whatever its called these days) - cruise & lane control for highway / motorway style traffic situation.

    Wake me up when "driverless vehicles" can do the difficult driving (might be difficult to wake me as I'm guessing I'll be long dead before then as it's a seriously difficult task with the huge amount of unpredictable scenarios that will make it a PITA to get the auto vehicles .that cope well with the unexpected (or even just figuring out body language / gestures of pedestrians / other drivers as happens on a daily basis for human drivers))

  20. Tom Paine

    Burning bridges

    That's the last Anheuser Busch product launch El Reg gets invited to. Accuracy in reporting is never good as far as manufacturers of industrial Larger Beer are concerned.

    1. disgruntled yank

      Re: Burning bridges

      You'll find that Anheuser Busch product is launched all over the college campuses of America, particularly on weekend nights. Whether The Register would care to be invited to see this is another question. But I do like the notion of Larger Beer.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Burning bridges

        "But I do like the notion of Larger Beer."

        Yes. A far far better concept than Larger Busch.

  21. mIRCat
    Pint

    "The company estimates it could save $50m a year by shifting from human to robot-powered delivery of its piss-poor excuse of a beer."

    It could save a good deal more if it made a quality product.

    1. Charles 9

      If it made a quality product, as you put it, no one would buy it because that's not what they want. A-B are no fools. Neither is MillerCoors. They make what the customers want; that's how they make money, and if Americans are more interested in light and cold "pale imitations," then that's what they'll get. If you want them to make "better beer," convince all those American drinkers to switch to craft beer.

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