Driverless cars yet to come, but this startup is remote-controlling trucks

Phantom Auto was founded in 2017 to help bridge the gap between the vision and the reality of autonomous vehicles

For four days in February, Ben Shukman showed up to his office at Phantom Auto in Mountain View, California, sat down in front of a bank of computer screens with a steering wheel in a darkened room, and began driving. As the 25-year-old turned the wheel in Silicon Valley, an empty truck 2,500 miles away in Atlanta picked up semi trailers and towed them around a warehouse lot.
 

From seven states away, Shukman backed trailers into loading docks and parking spaces. “We were able to do some maneuvers that were so difficult that there were truck drivers there that said