Isuzu Motors Limited and Gatik have taken a first step towards stepping up cargo-only deployments in North America.
In a first-of-its-kind partnership for medium-duty trucks that haul shipments along intermediate miles, the corporations will design and expand a new truck chassis (with L4 redundancy) that ensures protection when supplied with an autonomous driving system. The ready platform is expected to start rolling off the assembly line at a compromised Isuzu plant in 2027.
In addition, Isuzu will receive $30 million in Gatik.
Since launching loading facilities with Walmart in 2021, Gatik is the only company to offer autonomous logistics facilities in intermediate miles in North America, class 3 to 7 autonomous trucks.
In fact, in 2021, Gatik was the first company in the world to offer absolutely driverless freight transport. Founded in 2017, the company has steadily expanded its visitor base over the past three years and now its partners include Fortune 500 companies in addition to Kroger. , Pitney Bowes, Loblaw, Tyson Foods and Walmart. Isuzu has been your OEM partner, with advanced initial diversity capability after production. As with many AV truck manufacturers, the way forward to scale is to have the autonomy-ready platform produced entirely through the automaker. Gatik also has engineering and operational partnerships with Ryder and Goodyear.
$250 billion in the mid-market
Most truck autonomy startups concentrate on long-haul operations with Class 8 semi-trucks.
While this is the sector that tends to get the most attention, the North American half-mileage sector is a large freight sector. Shipments between distribution centers and retail outlets are common at stock pickup points and e-commerce services.
Gatik’s intermediate routes are repetitive, simplifying the technical challenge. As Gatik points out, their technique “significantly limits the number of chances we find, allowing us to maximise the protection and functionality of the vehicle”. Gatik offers a variety of routes from a few kilometres to a few hundred kilometres, addressing traffic lights, prevention signs, vulnerable road users and all kinds of complexities typical of surface streets.
Gatik Class 3 through 7 trucks have recently been deployed in Texas, Arkansas, and Ontario. Currently, the company operates more than 65 trucks; Some routes are now driverless (cargo only) and others are supervised by safety drivers. These are revenue-generating operations. The company plans to roll out its cargo-only service in Dallas on a significant scale through the end of this year and into 2025.
In a recent press release, Gautam Narang, CEO and co-founder of Gatik, noted, “In 2021, Gatik introduced the world’s first fully driverless advertising transportation service with a Fortune 500 retailer, and we are excited to succeed again in a first step in the industry by racing with our Isuzu spouse toward mass production of SAE Level Four autonomous trucks. This union, along with Isuzu’s investment in Gatik, is a testament to the company’s confidence in our generation and our world-class team, and we are excited to bring autonomous transportation to market on a significant scale in the coming years. “
Hiroshi Sato, CEO of Isuzu, said: “As part of the announcement of our April 2024 medium-term business plan, we are committed to building three pillars of new business for the future: autonomous, connected and carbon driving solutions. Neutral solutions. As part of our efforts to expand autonomous driving solutions, we are excited to expand our relationship with Gatik to be operational in 2027. “
The Isuzu Game
As Sato noted, the “ISUZU Transformation – Growth to 2030 (IX)” marks a shift towards autonomous driving responses as one of the 3 pillars. More than 2 billion dollars have been budgeted.
To dig a little deeper, I chatted in depth with Shaun Skinner, president and CEO of Isuzu Commercial Truck of America.
I first wanted to get a feel for the 3-7 fancy truck market in terms of range. Skinner said the bed truck market has been slower to adopt even basic and complex motor assistance systems compared to other market segments. Isuzu and continues to be a leader in the market. ” Isuzu is one of the first to introduce automatic emergency braking in the Class 4-5 advertising truck segment. Other features we offer now include adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and following distance warning. These features are hard to find in the box truck market.
Compared to technology-driven Class 8 OEMs, it seemed like a big step forward to work with a supplier of automated driving systems as early as 2021. Skinner said yes, it’s a little early, but they’d been watching the area closely for a while. while. They were able to dedicate themselves to a spouse in autonomy until 2021. “Gatik’s approach and technique were a good fit for our priorities. Our team felt it was the most productive compatibility for our product and how our consumers use our products. ,” he said.
Looking back, he believes the perfect time has come.
For both the Japan headquarters and the North American team, Skinner emphasized that the U. S. market is a high priority, so this announcement to mass-produce autonomous trucks in partnership with Gatik is particularly significant. From his perspective, Skinner said his team “needs to stay on top of the industry independently, be informed of what we don’t know, and be prepared as the market grows. “
How will the market evolve as diversity increases? “It will probably be a three-legged stool encompassing the manufacturer, the broker and the visitor,” which is already well developed through Isuzu, with three hundred brokerage companies in the United States alone. “The visitor expects a high level of sophistication and of intermediation. Autonomy will reach the end user through us as OEM.
There is no doubt in Mr. Skinner’s answer to my next question. Is Isuzu actively looking for new diversity partners for other use cases?”No, we are firmly on Gatik’s side. “
UD Trucks, which produces Class 8 vehicles, is also Isuzu’s umbrella. Like Isuzu Trucks, UD Trucks has introduced “Fujin
Firm steps in a mature market
This progression through Isuzu and Gatik (factory production of AV trucks) reflects similar activity by Aurora, Plus and Torc in the long-haul sector. Not only have we “established an association”, but in some cases it is expressly stated. Aurora works with PACCAR and Volvo Group. It also works with IVECO and TRATON. Torc is close to Daimler, given that Daimler owns 51% of the company. Despite those announcements, Gatik remains the only company that has commercially implemented driverless operations.
What’s also unique is that Isuzu has promised Gatik “a guaranteed allocation of trucks,” meaning that even if Isuzu decides to work with other companies, Gatik will be the priority when it comes to autonomous trucks rolling off the production line. It’s a vital commitment through Isuzu that reduces commercial dangers for Gatik.
All of those transactions are very important, but they are still in their early stages. We can take a look at the players, adding Gatik and Isuzu, to provide evidence as everything becomes more real.
Mass production announcements are concentrated around 2026-27. These are target dates; Let’s wait and see what the moment will be.
What is more important? The investments needed for those goals are being made now.
Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an advisor and/or shareholder to corporations in the automated driving industry, including Aurora, Gatik, and Plus, which are discussed in this article.
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