WINDSHIELD TIME Chances are you spend a lot of time in your car. Here’s something that might help you appreciate your home-away-from-home a little more.
Mazda CX-50
Automotive-related news Santa’s new helper? Self-driving truck pilot program launches during the holidays TechCrunch reported that Waymo Via, the delivery division of Alphabet’s self-driving arm, is expanding its existing partnership with UPS to carry freight via autonomous Class 8 trucks. The six-week pilot, which kicked off in November and will continue until the end of the year to support the holiday season, was to take place in Texas between Houston and Dallas-Forth Worth. Waymo is not sharing the specific number of trucks it will use for the pilot, but it did say “multiple trucks” from its test fleet of Peterbilts that are equipped with its fifth-generation Driver will be delivering goods for UPS’s North American Air Freight (NAAF) unit. The trucks will have two autonomous specialists onboard – one driver with a commercial 40
January 2022
•
www.repertoiremag.com
driver’s license and one software technician – who will monitor Driver’s operations while in autonomous mode. The trucks will be self-driving only on highways, and will switch back to manual mode for surface street portions, a spokesperson for Waymo told TechCrunch.
Used car market putting a dent in consumers’ wallets According to a recent Washington Post report, the unraveling of the used-car market is the most tangible result of a problem that has plagued the global economy for the past year: a dire shortage of computer chips that has hobbled auto manufacturing. The lack of new cars hitting the market has caused a shortage of used cars, too, raising prices and crimping sales. The crisis has created
