These self-driving trucks just drove across Europe

Self driving technology is here, and a fleet of trucks have just completed a trip across a big chunk of Europe

Self driving technology is most certainly coming, with big names like Google leading the way for what should hopefully be a safer commute in the not so distant future. The tech is also moving into other sectors, including the very suitable freight industry.

A test was just conducted in Europe with small fleets of trucks coming together in a follow the leader style. The rear trucks were synced to the front vehicle by Wi-Fi with braking and accelerating tied to the lead truck. Keeping these vehicles in sync is a process known as platooning, and it has been proven to safe on time and fuel when it comes to moving large masses like this around.

Manufacturers like Scania took part in the European Platooning challenge and they produced a video describing how it actually works.

Before you start having nightmares about a Maximum Overdrive type situation, these trucks all had human drivers in them at all times in case of any issues and the entire experiment was carefully monitored. Still it could well be a glimpse at how our good are shipped around on land in the near future.