Even though self-driving vehicles are just that, self-driving, they’ve always still had a seat for a driver and a steering wheel. Perhaps that means that designers were afraid that their technology wouldn’t work correctly. Or maybe, customers weren’t fully committed to only being able to use them as a self-driving vehicle. Well, it seems as if Komatsu isn’t worried about either of those things anymore, as they’ve officially unveiled their newest autonomous (self-driving) haulage vehicle this week at MINExpo, which was held in Las Vegas from September 26-28, 2016.
Komatsu has been producing autonomous vehicles for the mining industry since 2008, way before we started seeing Google and Tesla’s autonomous cars hit roads. Since that time, Komatsu says, over 1 billion tons of overburden and minerals have been hauled away by their trucks. The new Komatsu self-driving haul truck will be their first without a cab for a human driver or operator. Without the cab, the truck will be equally balanced while it’s loaded and unloaded. Weighing in at 458 tons (416 metric tons), the gigantic machine has a payload of 253 tons (230 metric tons).
Komatsu will be releasing the new vehicle for purchase “in the near future,” according to a press release, but they’ve released a computer generated video of their new concept, which you can watch below.
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