Autonomous expertise trucking firm Kodiak Robotics Thursday introduced a collaboration with Werner Enterprises (CCJ High 250, No. 13) to determine an autonomous trucking lane and to showcase how effectively autonomous vehicles can be utilized by way of a switch hub mannequin.
The connection kicked off final month with a week-long pilot program by which a Kodiak truck, accompanied by a human security driver, accomplished 4 spherical journeys (eight segments) between Dallas and Lake Metropolis, Florida. In the course of the pilot, Kodiak accomplished a complete of 152 hours of operation – together with obligatory relaxation breaks, time for refueling and driver swaps – lined 7,957 miles, and achieved 100% on-time supply efficiency with a calculated common pace of 65 mph.
Werner had trailers prepared for a Kodiak self-driving truck to select up on each ends of the journey, and Werner’s native drivers accomplished first-mile pickup and final-mile deliveries – a truckport/switch hub mannequin that Kodiak Founder and CEO Don Burnette mentioned maximizes the period of time the Kodiak Driver – the corporate’s autonomous platform that makes use of a sensor fusion system and light-weight mapping resolution – spends driving. The corporate famous that 94% of all miles had been pushed in autonomy whereas accompanied by a human security driver.
Werner’s Senior Vice President of Van/Expedited Chad Dittberner mentioned the Omaha, Nebraska-based service is raring to determine the hybrid mannequin of drivers and ongoing autonomous lanes “to create new and unparalleled ranges of effectivity whereas staying targeted on Werner’s worth of placing security first.”
Burnette mentioned the Kodiak Driver is designed to do the often-undesirable freeway parts of long-haul routes, “permitting drivers to deal with the deliveries that allow them sleep in their very own beds at evening.”
Werner Enterprises additionally joined Kodiak’s Accomplice Deployment Program, which helps carriers set up autonomous freight operations and seamlessly combine the Kodiak Driver into their fleet.
Kodiak Robotics in April, alongside U.S. Xpress, launched Stage 4 autonomous freight service between Dallas-Fort Price and Atlanta. Utilizing a Kodiak self-driving truck and U.S. Xpress trailers, the 2 firms in Could accomplished a first-of-its-kind pilot, hauling freight on 4 round-trips (eight segments), protecting roughly 6,350 miles and delivering eight business hundreds between Dallas and Atlanta.
Kodiak and Werner just lately wrapped 152 hours of autonomous operations, together with obligatory relaxation breaks, time for refueling and driver swaps. As a result of the eight journeys had been back-to-back steady runs, there have been each day and evening operations.
