Driverless trucks

Remote human supervision is an increasingly popular approach to the rollout of self-driving freight-haulers. A good example is the Einride Pod, a robotic truck which carries some 16 tons of cargo. But the approach is also used by Kiwi, an operator of small last-mile delivery vehicles. Remote piloting, the default for unmanned aerial vehicles, allows for on-board systems to guide the vehicle during normal operations but alert a human operator in difficult situations or an emergency. A single operator can manage several vehicles at once, achieving economies of scale well beyond conventional arrangements, while also augmenting AV software's limitations.

This hybrid approach points towards a future where commercial fleets aren't likely to be fully-human or fully-computer driven by managed by local software and remote operators who supervise small dispersed fleets. This suggests a potentially rapid deployment of AVs for commercial and freight use that sidesteps the slowing development curve for fully self-driving tech.