There Are Plans to Build a Robot Highway for Self-Driving Trucks

June 3, 2015
While Google and Uber and who knows who else are all working on bringing self-driving cars to public streets, there's also different robo-car plan in the works. Why not just build a giant robot highway for 18-wheelers from Mexico to Canada?It actually could happen. The project is currently being considered by members of the Central North American Trade Corridor Association (CNATCA), and would consist of a robot-only corridor running along Route 83 through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and on into Manitoba. One of the main reasons for a robot road like this, according to Marlo Anderson of the CNATCA, is that

While Google and Uber and who knows who else are all working on bringing self-driving cars to public streets, there's also different robo-car plan in the works. Why not just build a giant robot highway for 18-wheelers from Mexico to Canada?

It actually could happen.
The project is currently being considered by members of the Central North American Trade Corridor Association (CNATCA), and would consist of a robot-only corridor running along Route 83 through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and on into Manitoba. One of the main reasons for a robot road like this, according to Marlo Anderson of the CNATCA, is that North Dakota produces a lot of oil right now, and doesn't have a great way to get it all where it needs to go. Sure, there are trains, but there's not enough space to be had. That, and the jury-rigged cars that carry the oil keep exploding.

Trucks can help ease the pressure, especially if they don't need drivers. The smart trucks are already starting to show up. Just the other week Freightliner announced the first self-driving rig to be street legal in Nevada.

It's not quite advanced enough to go on real roads with no one in the cab yet, but on a robot road of its own? Maybe. There are plenty of problems to solve before any of this would be possible though, including self-driving car laws in half a dozen US states, some way of having driver-less robo-rigs cross borders into and out of the United States, and security in place to make sure no one tries to exploit that system. But robot roads like this one — if it happens — could pave the way to wider acceptance of self-driving vehicles that really do take care of it all themselves. Even if we're not ready to have them on the road with us just yet.

This article originally appeared on MSN.