See video of an 18-wheeler cruising a Florida highway without a driver

Imagine this: A massive truck cruising down the highway without a driver. That may be a reality sooner than you think. A company in Orlando is already testing a way to move unmanned semi-trailers across long distances using drone technology.

Right now, the American Trucking Association estimates about 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States. While you might see more trucks on the road soon, they might be driving themselves.

Starsky made history by successfully completing a 9 mile unmanned test drive next to normal traffic on the Florida Turnpike.

Francisco Pijuan has been driving semi-trucks for 30-years. He said using this technology would address a major problem in the transportation world.

“There is a shortage of truck drivers,” Pijuan said. “It’s like another tech, the self checkout lanes in a grocery store.”

During the 9 mile haul, Starsky’s truck navigated through a rest area and merged onto the highway while maintaining a speed of 55 miles per hour. It was all with nobody behind the wheel. But Pijuan said there is situations where self driving semis are not practical.

On an average day, Pijuan makes a dozen deliveries off roads like Metro Pkwy. He said they call the roadway “metro roulette.” He also makes deliveries off U.S. 41. Both are roads the semi-trucks would have trouble navigating.

“There’s never an opening and you have to back into these businesses,” Pijuan said. “There’s not the distance that computer wants it to have…so the truck wouldn’t move, it’d be paralyzed.”

While there are still kinks that need to be fixed, the public may be frightful of the technology at its current form, preferring actual drivers behind these thousand pound behemoths.

Pijuan acknowledges the fear.

“We’re a ways from it,” Pijuan said. “But we’re getting closer.”