Truck Stop Operator Explores Accommodating Self-Driving Trucks

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Truck Stop Operator Explores Accommodating Self-Driving Trucks

U.S. truck stops are starting to get ready for self-driving trucks. The Wall Street Journal reports that truck stop operator Pilot Flying J is taking an equity stake in automated vehicle startup Kodiak Robotics, the first step in what Pilot says will be a broader plan to outfit its highway stations to greet robot trucks. 

The effort will start with a single truck stop in the Atlanta area that could become a model for how Pilot aligns its operations for driverless vehicles. That could include features such as streamlined access to fuel pumps and dedicated spots to handle cargo. 

It’s the latest sign of how transportation companies are adjusting parts of their business to new technology hitting the freight sector. 

Read more: Driverless Long Hauls, Digital Freight: The Trucking Tech That Can't Come Fast Enough

Experts say they expect self-driving freight vehicles to become widely available before autonomous passenger cars reach the roads because their routes can be more predictable and easily managed. ... ' 

Testing Autonomous Trucks for Supply Chain in US

 Look for this on US roads during tests.    Ultimately a supply chain improvement.    How much further will this expand?  Safety implications?

Sweden's Einride to Test Autonomous Trucks on U.S. Roads

The Wall Street Journal

Liz Young, June 23, 2022

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has granted permission to Sweden's autonomous-truck startup Einride AB to test self-driving freight vehicles on U.S. roadways in partnership with GE Appliances. The remotely operated electric vehicles will move along a one-mile stretch of road between two GE Appliances warehouses in Tennessee. Called Pods, the vehicles have no cabs for onboard drivers and can fit about 10 pallets (around 57,000 pounds) of freight. The remote operators can monitor multiple vehicles simultaneously. The two-week pilot program, slated for the third quarter, will see the Pods running on public roads with cars and trucks.   .... '

Wal-Mart to do Sam's Self Driving

 More autonomous elements of the supply chain. 

Self-Driving Truck Will Deliver Goods to 34 Sam's Club Locations

The Dallas Morning News

Alexandra Skores, June 7, 2022

Starting in July, Gatik, a California-based autonomous trucking company, will make deliveries to 34 Sam's Club locations in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, using autonomous 26-foot box trucks. Gatik's Richard Steiner said each truck will make an average of three runs per day, driving about 100 miles round-trip. The trucks initially will include a safety driver, but eventually will operate without such a driver. Gatik started testing the technology with Sam's Club parent company Walmart in December 2020, operating on a seven-mile loop in Bentonville, AR. Said Steiner, "It's something which is new for the space, and we're excited to be doing it first here in Texas."  .... ' 

Towards Robot Trucking

 A move  to better supply chains?    Competing with Rail?

Robot Truckers Could Replace 500K U.S. Jobs

By Bloomberg Quint, March 24, 2022

Autonomous driving engineers are developing driverless trucks for long-haul freight that runs along simple interstate routes.

Infrastructure may be the biggest challenge, and one solution is to establish transfer stations at either end so human drivers mount the first leg of the trip, hitch their cargo to robot rigs for the middle segment, then transfer freight back to an analog truck for delivery.

Another hurdle is designing self-driving trucks to navigate better in bad weather.  A University of Michigan-Carnegie Mellon University study estimated such a system could replace about 90% of human driving in U.S. long-haul trucking, or about 500,000 jobs.

Among the startups investing in robot truckers is CA-based TuSimple, which claims its self-driving systems can cut fuel consumption by up to 10%.

From Bloomberg Quint    

More Money Moving into Autonomous Trucking

Why?  More directly calculable ROI,  Less regulation. and more specific regulation. Less training of the users.  Leads towards simplification. 

Trucks Move Past Cars on the Road to Autonomy

By Wired, July 26, 2021, in CACM

The makers of self-driving trucks are focusing on comparatively simpler highway driving, and expect human drivers to handle local streets.

In 2016, three veterans of the still young autonomous vehicle industry formed Aurora, a startup focused on developing self-driving cars. Partnerships followed with major automakers, including Hyundai and Volkswagen. CEO Chris Urmson said at the time that the link-ups would help the company bring "mobility as a service" to urban areas—Uber-like rides without a human behind the wheel.

But by late 2019, Aurora's emphasis had shifted. It said self-driving trucks, not cars, would be quicker to hit public roads en masse. Its executives, who had steadfastly refused to provide a timeline for their self-driving-car software, now say trucks equipped with its "Aurora Driver" will hit the roads in 2023 or 2024, with ride-hail vehicles following a year or two later. This month, the company announced it would go public via a reverse merger, raising $2 billion in the process. "We have a team that really understands how hard this problem is," says Urmson.

The move points to a growing consensus in the industry: If self-driving vehicles are going to happen, trucks will likely arrive before cars.

From Wired 

Waymo Drives Autonomous Trucks

Will include a trained driver and technician, at least at first.

Self-Driving Waymo Trucks to Haul Loads Between Houston, Fort Worth  By Ars Technica

Waymo and trucking company JB Hunt have partnered to haul cargo loads autonomously between Houston and Fort Worth, TX.

The Class 8 trucks equipped with Waymo Driver autonomous software and hardware system will operate on Interstate 45 carrying a trained truck driver and Waymo technicians to supervise and intervene as necessary.

Waymo's Charlie Jatt said, "Our teams share an innovative and safety-first mindset, as well as a deep appreciation for the potential benefits of autonomous driving technology in trucking. It's companies and relationships like these that will make this technology a commercial reality in the coming years."

Full Article. 

Scale of Autonomous Truck Startup

 Considerable launch, had several people contact me re a recent post agreeing that this will promote the implementation of analytical improvements in supply chains.   Providing more solutions.  Still waiting for these to be generally on the road, and more data on their safety...  

Autonomous truck startup Plus raises $200M to accelerate global commercialization   By Duncan Riley in Silicon Angle   See Plus.ai

Autonomous truck startup Plus announced today it has raised $200 million in new funding to accelerate the global commercialization and deployment of its automated trucking system.

That will include the development of a sales and support network to help fleets integrate its automated trucking system and scale up deployments in the U.S. and China. The Series B round was led by Guotai Junan International, CPE and Wanxiang International Investment, with existing investor Full Truck Alliance also participating.

Founded in 2016 and previously known as Plus.ai, Plus is developing technology to enable large-scale commercialization of autonomous transport. Specializing in full-stack self-driving technology to enable autonomous fleets, Plus works closely with original equipment    ... "

Self Driving Vehicle Tech: Progress and Promise

 Good quick overview of measures and status:

In Communications of the ACM, October 2020

Viewpoints: Technology Strategy and Management  Self-Driving Vehicle Technology: Progress and Promises    Seeking the answer to the elusive question, ‘Are we there yet’?   By Michael A. Cusumano   

Advance of Automated Trucking

Looked at this topic last year, it continues to advance.

Are automated freight trucks ready to carry retail’s heavy load?  in Retailwire  by George Anderson

TuSimple, an automated trucking technology company, announced the launch of what it is calling the world’s first Autonomous Freight Network (AFN), which will enable fleets of driverless trucks using digitally mapped routes to load and unload full truckloads of products at terminals strategically placed throughout the country.

UPS, McLane, Penske Truck Leasing and U.S. Xpress have all signed up to be part of the network, which will roll out in three phases.

By next year, the network will offer service between cities including Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio and Tucson. TuSimple currently operates seven different autonomous trucking routes between Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso and Dallas. Each truck has a human operator on board in case they are needed to take over for some reason. The company plans to open a new shipping terminal in Dallas during the fall.  .... " 

Delivering Butter, Autonomously

Had no 'disengagements' that required the self-driving system needed to be interrupted.

A Self-Driving Truck Delivered Butter from California to Pennsylvania in Three Days
The Mercury News
Levi Sumagaysay in MercuryNews 

Startup Plus.ai has completed what is being called the first commercial freight cross-country trip by an autonomous truck, a 2,800-mile-run from Tulare, CA, to Quakertown, PA, that took three days to deliver 40,000 pounds of butter for Land O'Lakes. A human safety driver was aboard the autonomous 18-wheeler to take over if needed, accompanied by a safety engineer. The company said the trip was a smooth one with zero "disengagements," which occur when a self-driving system has to be suspended because of a problem. Ten to 15 companies in the U.S. are working on autonomous freight delivery, said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, who believes the trucking industry will be the first to adopt autonomous technology on a mass scale. “When the trucks can go long distance, that's when there will be significant ROI (return on investment)   .... "

Autonomous Trucking Startup iSee

Interesting effort which could change supply chain logistics.  Worried a bit about huge trucks flying around the road before we get it all right.   For more about the caution side of this I watched a recent Nova Program:  "Looks Who's Driving". See: https://www.pbs.org/video/look-whos-driving-65sadz/ .  Well done, and shows the complexity of the overall problem.

This autonomous trucking startup out of MIT wants computers to think like human drivers, and it just became the first self-driving truck investment for Founders Fund
By Megan Hernbroth   BusinessInsider.   Much more at the Link

iSee, an autonomous driving startup for trucks, announced $15 million in Series A funding from Founders Fund on Monday.

Unlike other autonomous driving and logistics startups, iSee uses proprietary deep learning and computer vision technology to try to give its trucks "common sense," an area that other technologies struggle to replicate. 

The startup is Founders Fund's first investment in the red-hot logistics sector. Still, partner Scott Nolan told Business Insider that the firm is investing in the iSee team and its technology specifically, not the larger trend.

The team is comprised of a notable computer research lab under cognitive science professor Josh Tenenbaum at MIT. Maintaining a high bar for new hires is one of the key challenges facing the team of former academics, Nolan said.  .... " 

Tele Operating Trucks

Are we expecting this change too quickly?

A big rig just hit 55 mph on a Florida highway without anyone in the cab    By Trevor Mogg 

If you were driving along the Florida Turnpike recently and happened to see a big rig motoring along without anyone behind the wheel, then no, your eyes were not deceiving you.

A system built by San Francisco-based Starsky Robotics powered the driverless truck to speeds of 55 mph along 9.4 miles of public road earlier this month. It’s thought to be the first time a heavy-duty commercial truck has been allowed on a public highway without anyone behind the wheel.

Starsky CEO Stefan Seltz-Axmacher said his company is competing with the likes of Waymo and TuSimple — which still use safety drivers in their autonomous trucks — by taking a different approach to how it incorporates its technology into large vehicles.   ...  "

More on the topic ad its connection jobs.  Autonomous driving mostly remote controlled?

UPS Invests in Self-Driving Trucks

Could create a considerable change in supply chain operations and improvement.

UPS invests in autonomous truck startup in Bloomberg

UPS has invested an undisclosed sum of money to take a minority stake in the autonomous truck startup TuSimple. UPS' freight business is providing cargo for haul between Phoenix and Tucson on trucks guided by TuSimple's autonomous system.  ... 

Smart Assistive Driving Tech Allows Control of Multiple Trucks

New look at how to make supply chains more efficient.

EMERGING TECH
Smart assistive driving tech allows one truck driver to control multiple trucks     By Luke Dormehl in DigitalTrends  @lukedormehl

Few people argue that self-driving vehicles aren’t on the horizon as far as future transport technologies go. But before we reach the point, there are other ways that smart assistive driving  technology can be used — without humans necessarily having to be removed from the process altogether.

That’s where connected vehicle company Peloton Technology’s new tech enters the picture. Unveiled at the recent Automated Vehicle Symposium 2019 in Orlando, Peloton’s vision for the future of Level 4 automation technology allows one (human) driver to control multiple trucks at the same time.

By utilizing vehicle-to-vehicle communications and radar-based active braking systems, combined with sophisticated vehicle control algorithms, the L4 Automated Following system lets one A.I.-driven truck follow another human-driven vehicle. Doing so can not only allow one driver to transport more goods, but also leads to greater fuel economy and safety. Accelerating in one truck will cause the other to follow, while braking works the same way. All of this happens almost instantaneously.   .... "

USPS Tests Self Driving Trucks

Not home delivery yet, but trucking. 

USPS starts testing self-driving trucks
The US Postal Service has begun a two-week test using self-driving trucks to transport mail between Phoenix and Dallas. The startup that developed the vehicles, TuSimple, has raised $178 million from investors including China's Sina and the US-based chipmaker Nvidia. ... " 

Driverless Electric Trucks

More driverless examples emerging.   Note the remote operation of these as well, so limitation of autonomous and public interaction.

Driverless Electric Truck Starts Deliveries on Swedish Public Road 
Reuters
By Esha Vaish; Inze Filks; Anna Ringstrom

A driverless electric truck has started delivering freight daily along a public road in Sweden, an achievement described as a world first by vehicle developer Einride and logistics client DB Schenker. Einride CEO Robert Falck said, “This public road permit is a major milestone ... and it is a step to commercializing autonomous technology on roads.” The developer plans to have 200 vehicles dispatched by the end of next year. The T-Pod employs an Nvidia Drive platform for real-time visual data processing; a remote operator can coordinate and operate up to 10 T-Pods simultaneously. The vehicle can make short trips between a warehouse and terminal on a public road in an industrial area in Jonkoping, at a top speed of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) an hour.  .... " 

State of US Autonomous Trucking

From McKinsey.     Have now seen two tests of the concept.  Impressive results. Yet regulation has not caught up. 

Distraction or disruption? Autonomous trucks gain ground in US logistics

As logistics goes digital, profound changes are coming to industry structure, operations, and profits. In the first of a series, we examine the impact of autonomous trucks. ... "

Autonomous Trucks in Logistics Centers

Makes lots of sense to experiment with this kind of approach where you have the most control.

Autonomous Trucks for Logistics Centers
By Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft 

The Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI (Fraunhofer IVI) in Germany is collaborating with industry to develop autonomous truck technologies for logistics centers.

The core of the AutoTruck project is the HelyOS "highly efficient online yard operating system," which can be operated via Internet browser. The system displays trucks on a digital map, enabling operators to not only view where individual vehicles are, but also to track them and acquire status information, and transmit missions and work orders to them using the TruckTrix live maneuver planning system.

TruckTrix calculates the trajectory along which the truck is to travel, accounting for vehicle geometry, fixed obstacles, and routes of other driverless vehicles. The calculated paths are sent to the trucks, which are guided by algorithms controlling each vehicle's speed and direction. ... " 

Self Driving Truck News in Supply Chain

Via Supply Chain Digest summarizes:

Supply Chain News: Lots of News in Self-Driving Truck Sector
Google Parent Jumping in Mix; Uber Kills Otto Brand among Legal Issues; Autonomous Trucks to Cause Massive Driver Job Losses, New Report Says

SCDigest Editorial Staff: 
It's been a busy few days relative to news on self-driving truck technology.

First, the Alphabet company's (parent of Google) self-driving car unit Waymo is also working on developing self-driving trucks, the company said last week according to Reuters  ..... " 

More on Self Driving Trucks

Worked for years on systems that managed trucking and driver management.    So this is a a key area of supply chain costs and complexity.   In Trucks.com:

Why Waymo is Plunging into Self-Driving Semi-Truck Test  by  Jerrry Hirsch

HomeTrucking TechnologySelf-Driving Trucks - Autonomous Vehicles
Why Waymo is Plunging into Self-Driving Semi-Truck Test

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Alphabet Inc., is testing a self-driving truck.

The company, formerly known as Google’s autonomous car venture, has installed its self-driving technology on a single Class 8 Peterbilt truck.

Waymo has begun tests at a private track in California and plans road tests in Arizona later in the year. For now, it is keeping a driver behind the wheel at all times. ..... "