Bot Auto (Houston, TX, USA) a startup level 4 autonomous trucking company, recently completed its first hub-to-hub 40-mile validation run.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (Warrendale, PA, USA) defines six levels of vehicle autonomy in its SAE J3016 standard, from Level 0 (no automation) to Level 5 (full automation). In this case, a Level 4 run means the vehicle can perform all driving tasks in specific environments with no driver intervention, nor is any driver needed, remote or onboard, in such a scenario.
According to Bot Auto, the validation run, completed in September, was conducted without a human in the cab nor with remote assistance, and was conducted at sunset to have the truck navigate day and night operations. The run, a round trip to and from a parking lot in the Houston suburb of Katy, took about 55 minutes and covered some 40 miles on U.S. 90, Interstate 10, and several surface streets. According to Bot Auto, the company’s SAE Level 4 autonomous Freightliner (Portland, OR, USA) truck “operated seamlessly” within its defined domain, navigating real world conditions as expected.
Sensors up, Humans out
The truck’s autonomy stack includes the following:
- Five LiDAR sensors, two installed on the truck’s top sensor bar looking forward, side, and back, one on the driver door looking in all directions, one on the passenger door, looking in all directions, one in the front of the truck facing forward and scanning long range.
- Fifteen high-definition cameras, installed throughout the truck.
- On-board redundant servers equipped with software that leverages transformer-based neural network, a type of machine learning that tracks relationships in sequential data, such as images, to learn context. The stack also includes rules-based algorithms for safety constraints, such as vehicles or pedestrians blocking the route.
“This validation run is a meaningful step, but it’s a waypoint, not the destination,” Dr. Xiaodi Hou, Bot Auto founder and CEO, states. “Success is simple: Autonomy must beat human cost per mile, consistently and safely. And at Bot Auto, humanless means no human—not in the driver’s seat, not in the back seat, and not behind a remote joystick.”
Bot Auto has been operating fully autonomous commercial vehicles between Houston and San Antonio, with drivers on board, for several months now. The company says it plans to conduct its first humanless commercial cargo run between Houston and San Antonio hubs in the coming months as it continues validation.
Related: Outrider Develops Autonomous Freight Yard Solution
Related: Norwegian Maritime Company Develops Autonomous Ferry
A version of the article referenced in this story originally ran as Bot Auto Completes First Level 4 Autonomous Truck Run in Texas Without a Driver in Fleet Owner, an Endeavor B2B partner site.
