LOCOMATION AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING TECH

Locomation has developed autonomous trucking technology to address trucking industry woes.

- Deepti Thore

With companies from diverse backgrounds engaged in the development of automation technologies in the field of commercial vehicles, it should not come as a surprise that Locomation, a Pittsburgh, PA (US)-based company has come out with yet another autonomous trucking technology suite to ease the pain points of the trucking industry. There is a surprise element however, and in the manner in which the company has leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop its technology offering. Accounting for an increasing pace of the society, and the rising need of e-commerce, Locomation has focused on driver augmentation through

Autonomous Relay Convoying (ARC) system. Elevating the driver to the position of a smart manager, ARC empowers him or her to manage two trucks by acting as a force multiplier.

Supporting a business equation laced with radically improved cost efficiencies and economic yields, ARC is about autonomously monitored operations that are safe and secure. Claiming to reduce up to 50 per cent labour costs, up to 30 per cent operating expenses and up to eight-per cent fuel costs, the ARC builds around the driver rather than to omit him. It does so with an objective to deliver full vehicle automation that incorporates human interaction. This, it does with an ambition to eliminate all truck-involved accidents.

Designed and developed to offer a superior driving experience to professional truck drivers, the ARC has also been designed and developed with a distinct shift of drivers in view. Pointing at a report by American Trucking Associations, which state that the respective industry is short of 50,000 drivers, the ARC is designed to deal with the challenge of truck drivers among other pain points.