Kodiak Robotics, a self-driving trucking company, says it has become the first company to publicly offer a “backup” system, which can autonomously tow a self-driving truck to the side of the road in the event of a truck or system failing. (See the video below).
The ability to perform a safe and reliable reserve, otherwise known as making the vehicle withstand a minimum hazard situation, is critical to safely deploying driverless trucks on public roads.
“To launch a self-driving vehicle without a human driver, you must ensure that the vehicle will protect motorists in the event of a truck or autonomous system failure,” says Don Burnett, founder and CEO of Kodiak.
“Implementing a back-up system is a fundamental necessity to achieve this level of safety. We are the first independent truck company to demonstrate this capability on public roads.
“We’ve built backup technology into the Kodiak Driver architecture from the start – it would be very difficult to add this capability as an afterthought.”
Ten times every second, Kodiak Driver, the company’s self-driving system, evaluates the performance of more than 1,000 safety-critical operations and components on both the self-driving stack and the core truck platform.
These components include both truck-related components such as the engine, oil levels, and tire pressures, as well as autonomous vehicle system components such as sensors and software operations.
Should any of these critical components deviate from acceptable performance standards, the Kodiak driver automatically implements a backup plan, towing the truck safely to the side of the road.
For example, if flying road debris damages one of the truck’s autonomous sensors, the Kodiak driver will detect the damage and tow the truck safely.
“It is imperative that the self-driving technology powering an 80,000-pound semi-truck is able to respond quickly and safely, no matter what’s going on,” Burnett says.
“Kodiak’s autonomous trucks are constantly watching themselves and preparing to stop if something goes wrong, just like a human would.
“Kodiak’s ability to perform secure backup procedures depends on our custom-designed security computer, Operational Control Engine, or ACE.
“One of the many critical functions responsible for the Kodiak ACE is to ensure that our autonomous system can guide the truck to a safe stopping point when necessary.”
While serious malfunctions such as inflated tires and engine problems are uncommon in cars, they can be very serious if not handled appropriately.
When a human is not in the vehicle to react to these scenarios, it is essential to have a backup tech that responds accordingly.
Just as the brainstem is able to respond quickly without waiting for input from the brain, Kodiak’s ACE security computer performs a rollback without input from the main computer of the Kodiak Driver.
The fourth generation of Kodiak trucks includes two ACE units for redundancy and added safety. If ACE loses connection to the main computer of the Kodiak Driver for any reason, ranging from failed connections to a loose cable, the system will automatically perform the backup procedure.
The ACE is a global interface for all truck platforms, and Kodiak is currently working on security computer certification to the highest standards of the automotive class.
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