PITTSBURGH, PA—Locomation, the world’s first technology platform to offer human-guided autonomous truck convoying, today marked the third anniversary of its founding and highlighted important recent milestones in its growth.
Earlier this month, the company moved into new, more spacious offices in Pittsburgh’s Robotics Row, a hotspot for fast-growing technology companies in the region. To accelerate testing of its autonomy technology, Locomation also recently moved into permanent garage space at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio, the nation’s largest independent test track and proving grounds.
In recent weeks, Locomation rolled out its third generation of autonomous trucks, using the Kenworth T680 model as the base platform. These third generation trucks feature new hardware, including Tier-1 supplied and jointly-developed autonomous operation intent steering, brake, and powertrain, as well as more advanced autonomy software.
On the financial side, to date Locomation has raised more than $50 million from investors and signed commercial contracts with Wilson Logistics and PGT Trucking for a total of more than 2,100 Autonomous Relay Convoy™ (ARC) systems. Combined, these agreements are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and it is estimated that Wilson and PGT will be operating in ARC segments with the potential to generate more than $1 billion annually in new freight transportation revenue at 30% lower cost.
“When we started Locomation, we had a hypothesis that human-guided autonomous truck convoys would be the safest and fastest way to deploy autonomous vehicles on our roadways, and we were right,” said Locomation co-founder and CEO Dr. Çetin Meriçli. “Not only has our strategy been commercially successful, with 2,120 ARC systems under contract, we have also added a portfolio of AV products with a suite of tools, methods and processes that will enable motor carriers to successfully implement and execute their autonomous truck services.”
As part of its third anniversary, the company also noted that it had experienced a three-fold increase in employees from just nine months ago.
ABOUT LOCOMATION
Locomation is re-engineering the world’s supply chain for autonomy by developing a portfolio of AV products and a suite of proprietary tools, methods, and processes that enable our clients to implement an operating model designed specifically for autonomous vehicles. Launched in 2018 by veterans of Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center, the Locomation team includes some of the world’s foremost experts in robotics technology, artificial intelligence, trucking, freight optimization, safety, and automotive.
