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Up close with the 300 tonne driverless trucks
Big mining firms are switching to driverless trucks and other autonomous equipment.
In addition to all vehicles being fitted with a big red emergency button that can stop the system, the autonomous trucks have lasers and radars front and rear to detect collision risks. On the OC’s large open plan floor, amid the banks of monitors arranged in clusters for the different mines, I meet Jess Cowie who used be a manual driller but now directs autonomous ones from the central drill pod. Over-trust, where people become so confident the autonomous equipment will stop that they start putting themselves at risk, can also be an issue, and he notes effort needs to be directed into improving the ability of trucks themselves to detect moisture.
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