U.S. Postal Service Starts Testing Self-Driving Trucks

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has agreed to partner with self-driving truck company TuSimple to use self-driving trucks to haul mail.

The two-week pilot will involve USPS trailers driving more than 1,000 miles between the Postal Service’s Phoenix and Dallas distribution centers.

TuSimple will run a series of its self-driving trucks for 22 hours each, including overnight driving. The trucks will also carry a safety engineer and driver to monitor vehicle performance.

"Performing for the USPS on this pilot in this particular commercial corridor gives us specific use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress,” states Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder, president and chief technology officer of TuSimple.

The Postal Service is exploring the practicality of using autonomous delivery vehicle technology to reduce fuel costs, increase safe operation and improve fleet utilization rate by lengthening the hours of operation, according to the USPS.

2 comments about "U.S. Postal Service Starts Testing Self-Driving Trucks".
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  1. R MARK REASBECK from www.USAonly.US , May 21, 2019 at 9:26 p.m.

    More Bogus info:
    FIRST AND FOREMOST, The USPS has never been a beacon of efficiency.
    SECOND, Most mail is moved in trucks by third party carriers, you never see
    a semi labeled as USPS.  They are however looking to replace their delivery fleet, with 5 companies in the running, and only one , Ford/Oshkosh is an American Company.
    Just don't seem right.

    https://www.foxnews.com/auto/special-delivery-new-u-s-postal-service-truck-to-be-picked-this-year
    So they don't run their own trucks now, how does that save fuel?
    Looks like these trucks need 2 drivers instead of one to be Auto-tonomous.
    And my stand by question.  How much does this add to  the price of a truck????/

    Another dumb idea that will be D.B.A>   Dead Before Arrival  and to help prove my point,
    For is laying off 7000 white collar and needs to include up to 23,000.  They claim they save $86,000 per lay-off.  That save a little over $600 mllion, maybe it's the $900,000,000 they invested in Auto-tonomous vehicles that they decided was not ready for prime time.
    Told ya!!!!
    https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2019/05/21/ford-job-cuts-analysts/3754205002/

  2. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin replied, May 21, 2019 at 9:32 p.m.

    You raise some valid points, as usual, Mark.

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