UBER FREIGHT * USA: No with autonomous UBER's trucks

* California - Industry observers surprised: Uber Freight was not launched concurrently with a fleet of autonomous trucks

--- Uber Freight launched Thursday without a component many in the transportation industry expected to see: autonomous trucks. Uber’s freight brokerage and autonomous vehicle ventures are separate, and are likely to remain so, a company official said... There are good practical reasons for keeping the two initiatives separate. For one, the retrofit autonomous truck technology envisioned by Uber is still being developed and tested, and is years away from widespread deployment. Secondly, a truckload freight brokerage needs a national footprint, and there’s no national regulatory footprint for autonomous vehicles... This it's Uber Freight’s target. “Automating the process is something that can spread a lot faster and a lot quicker and have an impact on small carriers all over the country,” Berdinis, senior products manager at Uber Freight, said. “We’re doing this now in Texas and we believe it will spread quickly over the next few years. Self-driving trucks have challenges that will take decades to work out... 
(Photo: Uber freight has officially arrived)   --  San Francisco, CAL, USA - JOC, by William Cassidy - 22 May 2017