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system, and making sure it is behaving the way
it should, and communicating with the driver
accordingly. Driver-out deployment [in reference
to no driver in the cab]-at least in some narrow
circumstances-is something that we expect to see
by the middle of the decade. It's only a few years
away. This technology is coming sooner than most
people think.
FM: There has to be the understanding that
adopting these technologies will take partnerships-a
blending of the best of both worlds.
Maybe people are skeptical or hesitant, but
people are also champing at the bit to adopt
technologies that can really change the way the
trucking industry is working.
DG: Absolutely, that's right; and that's true at a
FM: It is certainly exciting to overhaul the
way that this industry has been operating for
decades. Like you said, such digital technologies
are coming down the road, but that horizon is a
lot closer than people are anticipating. Can you
dive into the technology suite Kodiak utilizes?
DG: First, it is important to note, we-and most,
if not everybody in the industry-are building our
technology on top of traditional trucking platforms.
Our fleet is mostly Kenworth T680s. Our
trucks use a combination of cameras, radar, and
lidar, which is basically a laser system that sends
out a light pulse and sees what comes back. Lidar
can build a really detailed 3D map of the world
around the truck.
We think it's important to use a wide range of
sensor technology, because each kind of sensor
has its own pluses and minuses. Lidar is really
good at creating this 3D map, but its performance
isn't as strong in inclement weather; whereas radar
has a much lower resolution than a lidar unit, but
performs really well in the rain and other bad
weather conditions. In addition to those sensors,
which get a lot of the attention, there are other
things happening in the truck. We add and work
with Tier 1 partners to add computer-controllable
components-brakes, steering, things like that. We
add a very powerful computer to the truck.
We also pull out the sleeper so we can add a
couple of jump seats for engineer ridealongs and
things like that. But mostly what you see on the
truck is an off-the-line Kenworth T680.
FM: In terms of operating over an extended
period of time during this development phase,
those sensor components have to be maintained
themselves. Are there recalibrations or software
updates, things of that nature, to keep in mind?
DG: A big part of keeping these autonomous
fleets operating are maintenance procedures.
We've built internal maintenance processes working
with our suppliers and understanding their
best practices and their recommendations to build
maintenance processes that take into account
both the needs of the underlying truck platform,
as well as the sensors and other components.
Sensors do need to be calibrated, sensors need to
be cleaned, and there are a lot of these operational
maintenance requirements that go above and
beyond what traditional fleets have to do.
Today, most of those maintenance processes
are proprietary, just because the technology is a
little bit different from developer to developer. As
the technology develops, those will start to be a
bit more standardized. One of the implications of
that is that when we start operating driverlessly,
we're not going to be in a position in this industry
to hand a truck over to a carrier and say, " Best of
luck with this. " We are going to need to be closely
involved in training the maintenance team at our
» The wear and tear per mile will probably
be less for AVs than on a traditional truck,
but AVs will probably need to be maintained
more frequently given how many hours
a day they can spend on the road.
carrier partners, probably even embedding some
of our own people, to make sure that the trucks
are in as good of a condition as they can be in and
good enough to be on the road.
That's an important point; we understand that
we need to hold ourselves to a really high standard
in this industry to gain that public trust.
We understand that there is obviously going to
be some skepticism about this. We're making sure
that the trucks that we put on the road are among
the best maintained of any vehicles out there. It's
something we're really proud of. You can see it
when you look at the trucks-our trucks are maintained
to an extremely high standard.
lot of levels. We see a lot of interest from regulators
and law enforcement as well within the opportunity
here to raise the level of maintenance and
safety in the industry.
I chair the American Trucking Associations'
» Today, maintenance procedures surrounding
autonomous sensor technologies remain
proprietary, though that will change over time
as the industry adopts standard practices and
the technologies become more commonplace.
Technology and Maintenance Council's Automated
Commercial Vehicle Inspection and Enforcement
Task Force. The task force is focused on developing
commercial vehicle inspection processes for
autonomous trucks. The processes we're working
on suggests " no-fault " inspections-where we have
an in-depth pre-trip inspection, and the expectation
will be that everything is spotless before a
vehicle ever leaves the facility.
In addition, you have all these sensor technologies
and analytics and telematics that can
also tell you a lot about what is happening on
the vehicle, and make sure that it's safe, and help
you keep things maintained the way they should
be, as well.
There's a tremendous opportunity here for these
technologies to transform how maintenance gets
done and how we keep trucks safe. For someone
working in the maintenance industry, that's really
exciting because in addition to giving more
certainty and more information, this means that
maintenance becomes an even more important
part of how the trucking industry works. It
becomes the core operational question, " How do
you keep these trucks maintained at the level that
they need to be? "
FM: It is no secret that monitoring the vehicle
through telematics creates a level of insight
that isn't available without it. How does Kodiak
Robotics
leverage telematics and remote
August 2021 | FleetMaintenance.com
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august2021

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