This fireside chat is from Auto Day of FreightWaves’ Global Supply Chain Week. Day 4 focuses on truck manufacturers, suppliers and advanced technologies.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Early lessons in freight logistics for autonomous trucks
DETAILS: With partnerships with Paccar and Volvo to use its autonomous trucking software, Aurora Innovation has plenty of technology work ahead to meet its goal of removing the driver from Class 8 trucks by the end of next year. But it is also getting some early experience in logistics and supply chain work with Peterbilt and FedEx to move freight in supervised autonomous trucks in Texas.
SPEAKER: Sterling Anderson, co-founder and chief product officer, Aurora Innovation
BIO: Anderson has been involved in the autonomous vehicle space for more than 15 years. Prior to co-founding Aurora, he was director of Tesla Autopilot, chief product manager of the Tesla Model X and the inventor of the MIT Co-Pilot, which uses an on-board camera and laser range finder to identify obstacles.
KEY QUOTES FROM STERLING ANDERSON:
“If we were to operate at 65 miles per hour instead of 75 miles an hour, we can realize on the order of 25% better fuel economy. Is that of value? Because then we can drive through the 30-minute mandated every-eight-hours break. We can drive through the 11-hours-of-service limitation for humans, and we can still get goods around the network faster.”
“One of the principles that we espouse is you’ll practice as you’ll play. If you haven’t exercised every operational muscle you expect to have your truck experience, there’s a real possibility when we hand it over to our customers that they’ll say, ‘Wait a minute, guys. You haven’t thought of this. You haven’t thought of that.’”
“The problem with ground transportation is the limitation of human drivers. These trucks can’t be nearly as heavily utilized as the asset itself could otherwise support if it had a driver who didn’t have to eat, sleep and take breaks. This is really the value and the benefit that self-driving systems can bring to the supply chains.”