Engineers in UK had announced futuristic yet realistic plans to develop commercial autonomous street sweeping machines in Sept 2017. They were expected to hit the streets in early 2018 but there have been no deployments yet. The developers have decided to start trials at major commercial airports and similar establishments. However industry reports suggest that real vehicles on public roads are not going to happen anytime before 2019.
According to WestField AutoSweep, the company building these vehicles, trials are about to begin at Greenwich Living Lab, Birmingham Airport, London Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport Group, Trafford Centre, Media City Manchester soon. Trials on the autonomous sweeping units will determine their efficacy in complex situations and real-life environmental conditions. Further, after inputs from the trials, these machines will undergo improvements before they become street ready.
image credits : https://westfieldavs.com/( WestField UK)
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