May 30, 2016

JOBS GOBLINS WON'T DO:

Descent of the machines: Volvo's robot mining trucks get rolling (David Crouch, 26 May 2016, The Guardian)

In a disused military aircraft hangar buried deep in a granite hillside, Johan Tofeldt flicks a switch on the future of mining.

"Look, no hands!" he beams, as the truck lurches backwards and executes a precise reverse. "It's a little heavy on the clutch, but then it's not designed for driver comfort."

The cheerful Swede is sitting in a standard Volvo FMX heavy duty truck, a haulage industry workhorse. But where once there was a narrow bed behind the seat there is now a laptop and a tangle of wires. This is Volvo Group's driverless truck, designed to work in underground mines far beyond the limits of GPS navigation.

Posted by at May 30, 2016 7:25 AM

  

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