Today’s news sounds like it could be out of the future.
Rio Tinto’s Yandicoogina and Nammuldi mines are now running driverless trucks. That’s right. These trucks have no one sitting inside them while operating. The mines are moving their iron-ore via remote control technology located 1,200 miles away in Perth.
Right now there are 69 automated trucks running 24/7, every day of the year and each truck is saving 500 work hours a year. That is quite a bit of time saved and will ultimately pave the way for a lot of money being saved as well.
BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group have both tested the waters of automated haul trucks. I think the future will be full of driverless trucks which raises the question of where those operators will turn to for work. Interesting things are ahead.
*All information for this story was taken from mining.com.
