Self Driving Semis - Kodiak Robotics

If you are like me then you are also skeptical whenever someone brings up self driving vehicles. And your eyes roll when you hear “self-driving semi-trucks.”

I feel as if this story or ‘technological leap’ as people like to label it as gets old. This is because most of us know this is not a technology problem as much as a regulation one. Tesla has had self driving for years now and has only gotten better. The barrier has always been state regulators saying “we are not going to have these on our roads” or at least some variation of this sentiment. Despite this we still a number of companies wanting to be on the cutting edge of this subject. Which brings us to Kodiak Robotics.

They revealed their latest project earlier this week at the 2024 Consumer Electronics show with a semi that is completely autonomous and they claim requires no safety driver and ready to hit the road. Click here to see an article showing this: https://www.thedrive.com/news/driverless-semi-truck-fleets-could-hit-the-road-in-2024-with-these-kodiak-big-rigs

Before looking at this press launch I had never heard of the company reference called Cruise. In my research I have learned some of their robotaxis have failed so poorly they have pulled the majority of cars off of the road in San Francisco where they were testing them and last month they laid off 900 workers so financially they are not doing well. And coming into this event hearing of a new self driving car company people brought the skepticism of Cruise to this launch and wondered what they were doing different. According to Kodiak there are a few notable differences.

The most important thing they claim makes them safer than the robotaxis is that these trucks spend more time on the interstates than in downtown congested areas. Although less complicated, my concern is a mistake in a downtown setting going 20mph is pretty mild compared to what a mistake with a 80,000lb truck going 60mph+ will be if an error occurs. This would also include the liability attached to the companies using this service. Despite the skepticism they claim these truck are ready to go this year on a trial basis.

One of the features they give praise to is the 12 cameras and lidar system on these trucks. They can use this to give the trucks the ability to predict collisions and even hear emergency sirens on the road. These are built in with plenty of redundancies in the trucks to give them plenty of opportunity avoid collisions. They seemed to spend a large portion of this event convincing people “hey our trucks are safer than other driverless vehicles” which is not the greatest place to be selling from.

The important part of this is acknowledging 2 things:

1. These trucks are coming whether we like them or not, and Kodiak might not the be the one who brings it but likely someone will. As soon as the data comes out showing lower accidents and fatalities it will not likely take much to change the mind of regulators to allow this.

2. More than likely we will need these trucks as the demand for truck drivers is higher than it has been in a long time. Very few young people want these jobs and when the older trucking base retires we will struggle to fill these roles to one of the most important jobs in our infrastructure.

I will likely bring this up more as more companies dip their toes into this world and how it may affect the majority of those who work alongside these trucks.

Thanks,

Steven C