GENOA, Ohio — It may be able to drive itself on controlled-access highways, but don’t call “Otto” a driverless truck.

At least, not yet.

Yes, its camera and array of radar and laser sensors allow the Volvo truck tractor that went for a test drive Thursday on the Ohio Turnpike to speed up, slow down, or change lanes as its computer brain sees fit, but the two men from California-based OttoMotto, LLC, who came along for the ride said a driver is still needed for many other purposes.

“A highway autopilot that can remove stress for the driver” is how Matt Grigsby, the project’s software manager, described the truck’s automation system.

“It drives better than I do when it’s engaged,” said Mr. Grigsby, who while being in charge of the technology also holds a commercial driver’s license.

On a blustery day in northern Ohio, he remarked as an example, the computer holds the truck in its lane much more smoothly than a driver can when the truck is smacked by a wind gust.

But “Otto” is not designed to handle driving on surface highways, much less city streets, nor can it back up to a loading dock or make sure its cargo is properly secured, Mr. Grigsby said.

Humans did the city driving in late October when “Otto” made its first commercial delivery, hauling a trailer of beer 120 miles in Colorado. But during the freeway portion of the run, the driver’s seat was empty.

For the Ohio tests, though, there was always somebody in the driver’s seat, ready to take over for any reason.

That can be accomplished by tapping the accelerator or the brake, moving the steering wheel, flicking the “Engage” switch that’s also used to turn the system on, or — if all else fails — whomping a Big Red Button that cuts off power to the automation system.

Mr. Grigsby and William Martin, who after 9½ years as a private owner-operator joined OttoMotto in August as one of its test drivers, share time in the test truck’s driver’s seat, although most of the time Mr. Grigsby rides in the sleeper compartment monitoring the control system’s performance on a laptop computer.

August was also the month when OttoMotto was bought by Uber, the ride-sharing service that also is working on development of self-driving cars.

Mr. Martin said he doesn’t envision completely driverless trucks for the foreseeable future.

But automating the tedium of freeway — or turnpike — driving could allow long-distance truckers to travel more miles during the same time without compromising safety, he said: a driver who now travels 2,500 miles in a workweek could easily add 1,000 miles while resting in the truck’s sleeper bay.

“As the technology develops, it will improve drivers’ lives and help them make more money,” Mr. Martin said. “You’ll be home more often, make more money, and have a better life as a driver.”

The OttoMotto team drove/​supervised the truck Thursday on a trip west from turnpike headquarters in Berea, Ohio, to the Blue Heron service plaza near Genoa to meet reporters, then continued to the I-280 interchange in Lake Township. After Thursday’s testing, which followed a day of testing and demonstration trips on U.S. 33 near Columbus, the test truck was to be driven to its home base in California.

“Otto” visited U.S. 33 on Wednesday in conjunction with an Ohio Department of Transportation announcement of a $15 million plan to establish a “smart mobility corridor” between Dublin and East Liberty, with a sensor array linked by fiber-optic communications to support testing of vehicle automation technologies.

Adam Greenslade, the turnpike’s spokesman, said the turnpike also plans to add technological support systems suitable for automated driving next year, but noted such support isn’t necessary for OttoMotto’s truck, whose control system is completely independent of the road it’s on.

After announcing its participation in automated-driving studies, Mr. Greenslade said, the turnpike has received many comments from drivers expressing reluctance to share the road with computer-controlled vehicles. But most accidents, he said, are caused by human error.

“We wouldn’t put it out here if it wasn’t safe,” the turnpike spokesman said.

The turnpike, he said, is positioned to help make Ohio a leader in moving goods and services more efficiently, he said, and “it’s a long way off before the person is removed from the truck.”

Not that other drivers wouldn’t like to have the technology too.

“We’ve gotten quite a few emails from RV [recreational vehicle] owners saying, ‘Make my RV do this,’ ” Mr. Grigsby said.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published December 2, 2016, 5:00 a.m.