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Volvo's Self-Driving Mining Trucks
Volvo's self-driving trucks have been put on trial here and there - but now, Norwegian limestone mining calls.
(Volvo's Self-Driving Mining Trucks video)
The route the trucks will travel is relatively short, covering just 5 km (3.1 mi), but not exactly straightforward. First the truck beds will be loaded up with limestone in the pit of the mine, before driving 100 m (330 ft) to the entrance of a 3.5 km (2.1 mi) -long tunnel .The vehicles then have to navigate a second 800-m (2,600 ft) tunnel, before finally deploying its the load into a huge device on the water's edge where the material is crushed, poured onto a boat and shipped away.
Volvo's self-driving trucks use an array of GPS, radar and LiDAR sensors to autonomously navigate their surroundings...
(Via NewAtlas.)
One of our most creative science fiction authors, the legendary Philip K. Dick, saw these autonomous mining trucks in a side-vision from his classic 1955 short story Autofac:
A procession of automatic ore carts was racing over the bleak slag, a string of rapidly moving metal trucks that followed one another nose to tail...... A steady stream of loaded carts hurled toward the horizon, dribbling ore after them.
(Read more about autonomous ore carts)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/27/2018)
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