Self-driving truck developer Plus.ai announced today they have finalized an agreement with the Transportation Research Center (TRC) in Ohio to conduct rigorous testing of their Automated Driving System (ADS) in realistic conditions. The company calls this “an important step to prepare Plus.ai to safely roll out the industry’s first self-driving trucks.”
Testing will evaluate the ability of Plus.ai’s trucks to consistently handle multiple vehicle scenarios that best simulate complex, realistic driving conditions. Significantly, while much of the testing for high-tech crash avoidance systems in the past has been done with the vehicle-under-test interacting with a single vehicle, the approach here is to place the truck within a multi-vehicle context while driving at highway speeds on TRC’s four lane 7.5 mile oval test track in East Liberty, Ohio. As Dr. Josh Every, Director of Advanced Mobility at TRC puts it, “We human drivers rarely look at only one vehicle in forming our next move. Typically we are aware of multiple vehicles and estimate what they might do in response to our actions. In the same way, complex multi-vehicle scenarios should be presented in testing an automated vehicle.” As Plus.ai puts it, “This is a more rigorous test of the perception, prediction, and planning systems, involving aspects that would not be tested in a single other-vehicle approach.”
The core question is, can the truck accurately perceive what’s happening on the road and apply controls to provide a safe response? The range of responses include steering, braking, accelerating, executing a lane change, or a combination of all of these. Testing scenarios will include highway driving in both free-flowing and stop-and-go traffic, construction zones, disabled vehicles, and bicycles. Operating conditions will cover a range of weather conditions, visibility, and lighting.
Critically, not only is the testing independent, the design of the test is independent. TRC is calling the shots on the approach and test scenarios. According to Brett Roubinek, TRC CEO, they will “execute a battery of tests using our full set of tools and pushing the limits of commercial vehicle testing.” Plus.ai says that the initial test plan development phase is complete and testing is expected to begin in the coming months.
As soon as I know, this is the first public announcement of independent automated truck testing. While internal testing can also be a valid way to validate an ADS, entrusting independent test control to independent experts can be a way to give regulators and the public confidence. It’s just another when an impartial party scratches your embers!
Based in Silicon Valley, Plus.ai was founded in 2016 to provide a generation of autonomous battery-powered driving that enables autonomous transport of advertising on a large scale. The company notes that it is recently running with major truck manufacturers, carriers and fleet operators. Like most automatic trucking start-ups, Plus.ai is presenting its formula to take care of the road portion of cargo routes, with human-controlled trucks handling cargo during the first/last kilometer on surface streets. In mid-2019, Plus.ai expanded internationally, declaring a joint venture with FAW Jiefang, China’s largest truck manufacturer, to expand autonomous trucks for the Chinese market. Plus.ai says that in 2021, this exclusive partnership will launch its first product, a semi-autonomous SAE Level 2 production truck, built into the autonomous generation stack of Plus.ai. The FAW Level 2 truck is intended to be the joint venture’s first advertising product, with the product roadmap adding a complete Level Four truck over the next 3 to five years.
The TRC agreement is the latest facet of a wide range of checks for Plus.ai. Last October, they teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Transportation to verify their generation at the agency’s MnROAD cold climate pavement control facility in northwestern Minneapolis. The partnership includes sharing data on the functionality of autonomous trucks in difficult winter situations to discuss public policy. In addition, expired last year, the company conducted a 2,800-mile ad delivery check on behalf of Land O’Lakes, Inc., traveling from Tulare, California, to Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in less than 3 days. Plus.ai claims he was the first autonomous advertising pilot in the country to carry a fully loaded refrigerated trailer with a perishable shipment. With a fleet of approximately 20 trucks supplied for automated driving, Plus.ai has verified its ADS in 17 states to date: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Corporate plans to conduct controls in all legal states until the end of the first quarter of 2021. All checks are carried out with a professionally trained protective reason to force the wheel and a vehicle operator trained in the passenger seat who handles the fitness of the formula and identifies areas of knowledge. Enrichment. In preparation for the product launch, Plus.ai recently added to its advisory board Dennis Mooney, former senior vice president of Navistar International Corporation.
TRC is mythical in automotive engineering circles. Whether it’s cars, motorcycles, trucks or buses, generations of classic automotive engineers have been on the track of sweaty TRC due to the result of “your bathroom” tested. The largest independent automotive verification and verification center in North America, it also houses the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Research and Testing Center. TRC carries out a wide variety of classic vehicle controls aimed at spaces such as safety, energy, fuel economy, emissions, sustainability, noise, destination turn, simulation of the twist of the destination and performance. They recently built a new “SMARTCenter” study complex, specially designed for the verification of automatic and engaged cars of passenger cars and heavy vehicles. Other large-scale verification tracks in North America are owned by automotive OEMs. Being independent, TRC’s consumer base is very diverse, from start-ups to OEMs, giving them an exclusive attitude to the industry as a whole.
Does an independent ADS verify the way forward to reassure customers, encourage government help, and gain public acceptance? Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus.ai, says firmly: “We, an independent party, deserve to validate the preparation of a self-driving formula that uses realistic and complex scenarios, just as humans will have to pass driving controls to download a license. We hope this will become a style to review all automatic trucks in the future. The company says existing controls will evolve into “a more comprehensive and continuous control program that will build on this experience to ensure that Plus.ai’s autonomous driving formula is safe and validated for commercialization.”
There are many tactics to gain confidence. As we move toward a new presidential administration and a changed Congress, we may see tectonic adjustments in the regulatory environment that move the autonomous vehicle industry from self-certification to more formal validation processes that can also come with independent testing. Or not. It’s too early to tell. This is just one of the many interdependent cellular portions of the ever-changing autonomous driving ecosystem.
Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an adviser to Plus.ai.
I run a consultancy focused on strategy and partnerships in the vast ecosystem of automated driving. I work with tech developers, vehicle-makers, regulators, and others
I run a consulting company aimed at strategies and partnerships in the broad automated driving ecosystem. I paint with generation developers, vehicle manufacturers, regulators and others with key implementation issues. I have had the privilege of running with countless engineers and scientists who really know their craft; His attitude helps me keep my eyes on the total stage and my feet on the ground. Prior to DARPA CHALLENGES or Google Access in the 1990s, I led the USDOT curriculum on vehicle and road automation, which resulted in the 97 demonstration demonstrating fully automated driving on I-15 in San Diego. I have long supported the deployment of automated mobility in heavy trucks, robot taxis and non-public cars to take our society to a new level. By giving lectures and painting workshops to key resolution managers, they inform me as much as I do. I am extremely happy to talk about the demanding situations and the answers with them and to continue the verbal exchange here.