Safety, savings fuel push for driverless trucks

Autonomous haulage trucks operate at a mine in the Pilbara area of Western Australia in this undated operations handout photo provided by Rio Tinto. After decades checking their rearview mirrors for the threat from rail and air transport, truckers around the world are facing their latest rival head-on: driverless trucks. Already in Australia, the world's most truck-dependent nation, mining giants such as Rio Tinto are using remote controlled lorries to shift iron ore around massive mining pits.

After decades checking their rearview mirrors for the threat from rail and air transport, truckers around the world are facing their latest rival head-on: driverless trucks.

As companies from Toyota Motor Corp to Google parent Alphabet Inc race to develop driverless technology, trucking companies are seeing the potential to cut costs by nearly half and improve safety.