This fireside chat recap is from Day 3 of FreightWaves’ Future of Freight Festival live event taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee. For more information on the event, click here.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Autonomous trucks and infrastructure.
DETAILS: Net-Zero Carbon host Tyler Cole sits down with Rob Pluta, vice president and chief technology product officer at Ryder System Inc. to dig into the company’s drivers of innovation through a lens of constant improvement.
SPEAKERS: Cole and Pluta.
BIO: Pluta serves as vice president and chief technology product officer for Ryder System Inc. He is responsible for leading the development and execution of the company’s customer-facing new technology and innovation products for Ryder Fleet Management Solutions, which provides full-service leasing, used commercial vehicle sales and commercial rental of trucks, tractors and trailers. Pluta also plays a critical role in managing Ryder’s industry-leading solutions for fleet technology, including RyderGyde and RyderConnect. A 10-year automotive industry veteran, his career has focused on the digitization of the customer experience, as well as advancing the business through technology solutions addressing industry mobility disruptors, such as vehicle electrification and subscription offerings.
KEY QUOTES FROM PLUTA:
“Automatically, the conversation starts with the vehicle, and that’s what [customers] come asking about. But we immediately pivot that conversation to a holistic view around infrastructure. That’s a topic that is not top of mind for many of our customers, and we educate them and help them to understand how they need to plan for the infrastructure implications of where they’re going from an EV perspective.”
“We have a handful of light-duty [electric] vehicles in rental initially that were recently introduced, but we have a number of other pilot-test engagements that are happening with our own internal and external customers and are providing those capabilities.”
“There are a lot of different opportunities and a lot of investments happening by manufacturers right now to not only look at the battery-electric side of the business but looking at hydrogen and others.”