UPS Invests in Autonomous Vehicle Technology Company

For those who didn’t think the future was here, it’s time to open up those eyes. While we aren’t living in a universe similar to The Jetsons, there are definitely big strides being made. Many of these strides just so happen to be investments in the future and the technology is real. Every day, a little bit more will trickle out.

Now that the initial spark has been lit under the self-driving phenomenon, it’s only a matter of time before it spreads even wider. Driving takes up a lot of time and manpower. Having a machine do this could end up saving companies big time in the long run. Productivity can also shoot through the roof as workers who were formerly only dedicated to driving may be able to focus on other tasks now.

For those who thought that autonomous vehicles were going to be limited to consumer cars, we have some news for you.

Shipping company, UPS, is so excited about the technology that they decided to invest, themselves. One would think that a company like this might just enlist the help of a third party for such tech. However, they seem to want to skip the middleman and go straight to third party themselves.

Via TechCrunch, UPS has invested in a minority stake of a company by the name of “TuSimple.”

They say that this comes very shortly after the company began testing level 4 autonomous trucks. While moving away from human drivers to autonomous systems might seem drastic, that seems like exactly what shipping companies need. With giants like Amazon completely shifting the landscape, UPS will definitely need a way to keep up. After all, they would probably like to work with Amazon instead of against them. However, Amazon has other plans as it has been quickly rolling out its very own shipping service.

TuSimple is working on level 4 autonomous systems. This means that in certain conditions, the truck would be able to take over complete control. They do say that this technology being refined enough for regular use is still years away. However, UPS is looking to dip their toes in early.