A start-up aimed at making existing trucks on the road driverless has been launched by a group of former senior Google employees.

Aimed to bring disruption to the long-haul trucking industry, Otto, which came out of stealth mode on Tuesday, presents a different aspect to driverless automobiles even as companies from Google to Tesla are talking about driverless cars.

Before they started off with this project, all the four co-founders worked at Google.  One of the important members of the Otto team, Anthony Levandowski, was a key part of Google’s own autonomous driving project.

Otto sees the technology as being able to improve a key industry even though self-driving trucks might not be as glamorous as cars.

But, why driverless trucks?

Driverless trucks could solve some major issues on the roads while the idea seems to be a novel one.

4.3 million trucks which are responsible for the transportation of goods take the roads of U.S. interstate highways every day. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the trucks move 70 percent of all cargo in the U.S. on any given day which amounts to around 14 billion tons of freight annually.

Added to this, are the safety issues that are posed by the trucks while they are on the road. Trucks are the cause of 9.5 percent of all driving fatalities, even though they just drive just 5.6 percent of all U.S. miles, data from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows.

Concerns about the growing shortage of drivers of trucks have been already expressed by the American Trucking Association.

This is where Otto wants to intervene and hopes to improve.

The trucks become driverless with the help of a driverless kit that has been developed by the U.S. start-up, comprising of ex-Google, Apple and Tesla employees. The kit  can be equipped to the existing trucks on the road.

“We are developing a suite of sensors, software and truck enhancements coming together in a product that can be quickly outfitted on existing trucks,” Otto co-founders Anthony Levandowski and Lior Ron, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The company recently completed an autonomous demo on a public highway and is in the process of conducting more tests for the technology on highways, said the company in one of its blogs.

“We intend to enhance the capabilities of the Otto truck, collect safety data to demonstrate its benefits, and bring this technology to every corner of the U.S. highway system,” the blog post added.

Drivers can avail the luxury of to taking naps and rest during legs of the journey thanks to the autonomous trucking technology. Consequently the time for a journey would be reduced as trucks would not need to stop.

However in order to turn its vision into reality, Otto will have to work with regulators.  While some US states have their own rules, there is no national legislation for driverless vehicles at present. And the situation is similar for regulators across Europe.

Attention of major auto makers has been drawn to the technology of driverless trucks.  In April, a fleet of trucks from various manufacturers including Volvo completed a week of autonomous driving across Europe while Daimler, the owner of Mercedes, tested a self driving truck on a public road in Germany last year.

(Adapted from CNBC)