Heavy Duty Trucking, February 2018

mbark is a Silicon Valley based technology innovator that is developing a truck specific approach to autonomous driving that chief operating officer Mike Reid says will address many of the immediate personnel issues in trucking today and may even create jobs as in home grocery and last mile deliveries heat up Reid told HDT that there is no question that the advent of autonomous vehicle technology will fundamentally change how fleets operate Embark is working on a deep learning autonomous vehicle system that will focus exclusively on dedicated long haul trucking corridors as a way to introduce the technology with immediate value for early adopters Reid says Embarks first autonomous vehicle system will be designed to take a semi truck on long highway runs with human drivers slipping behind the wheel at transition points off the freeways to take the trucks in to distribution centers where freight can be offloaded and put on vehicles better suited for urban and last mile delivery routes A truck running on a long boring 1500 mile route is also operating in an environment where its exposure to the number of different and dynamic driving scenarios is seriously constrained Reid says In other words even at highway speeds theres simply a lot less going on that the vehicles autonomous control has to anticipate track and contend with compared to urban streets with pedestrians bicyclists congestion and more And instead of developing an autonomous vehicle control system that is simply released onto American streets and expected to deal with the infinite number of variables that human drivers deal with on a daily basis Embark will focus on both a retrofit and new OEM spec system that is focused on very specific truck routes with favorable weather conditions and high freight volumes The software brain on these trucks will be capable of running these predetermined routes providing value for fleets from the outset Reid says the result will be a truck that is capable of taking on jobs in a market segment that is proving difficult for fleets to recruit drivers for while improving their bottom lines Our business case to the fleets for our autonomous technology is very simple he says What if every driver on that route drove their truck like your absolute best driver day in and day out in terms of speed limits fuel economy braking turning and overall safety We think those are the sorts of things that will really appeal to fleets superior vehicle performance with more efficient operations And Reid notes dedicated long haul autonomous technology would allow fleets to shift human drivers away from stressful hard to full routes and instead employ them in urban and last mile jobs that get them home every night There are a lot of issues in play from legislation to the average age of the current driver pool that make us think well see autonomous vehicles begin to play a role in the trucking industry sooner rather than later Reid says Embark recently announced it has partnered with Peterbilt as well as Ryder System Reid says the company is in the process of proving out its autonomous vehicle concept with commercialization to follow as soon as possible It seems to me as we move closer toward the real word debut of autonomous commercial vehicles that a measured practical approach such as this will go a long way toward proving the concept to skeptics both in and out of trucking HDT FEBRUARY 2018 28 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM Embarks autonomous truck vision focuses on dedicated routes Jack Roberts Senior Editor jroberts@ truckinginfo com What if every driver on that route drove their truck like your absolute best driver day in and day out in terms of speed limits fuel economy braking turning and overall safety Mike Reid Embark Jack has become known for his reporting on advanced technology such as intelligent drivetrains advanced driver assist systems autonomous vehicle technology truck platooning and alternative fuels He can be reached at jroberts@ truckinginfo com or 310 533 2521 FUTURE FLEET E Embark is currently testing its deep learning approach to autonomous truck operations on public highways in Nevada PHOTO EMBARK