Kodiak upfits electric Peterbilt with self-driving system
Kodiak Robotics is showing at ACT Expo what it claims is the first autonomous fully electric Class 8 truck.
The Peterbilt 579EV is equipped with Kodiak Driver self-driving technology. The company says it will be incorporating the electric Peterbilt into its fleet next year.
“We believe that the future of trucking is the combination of electric and autonomous vehicles,” said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak Robotics. “Given advancements in battery and fuel cell technologies, achieving zero-emissions trucking will soon be within reach. Kodiak’s work on the Peterbilt Model 579EV will help us gain valuable experience in how to build autonomous electric vehicles, and help us realize that vision. Customers have been long asking for an autonomous electric vehicle and we are delivering on that need.”
Kodiak’s autonomous driving system is vehicle- and powertrain-agnostic. The 579EV is the second vehicle platform the company is upfitting with its fifth-generation sensors. The company says its autonomous driving system will be able to increase range, as autonomous systems have proven to improve fuel economy by about 10%.
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Maybe because I have been driving tractor trailer for over 50 years and have seen what the real world is like out there, I still at this time do not have full faith in autonomous trucks. Too much I feel can still go wrong and the results would be devastating in many circumstances. Maybe with time and research this will change, but I don’t see this on the foreseeable horizon. The public does not seem to take strongly nowadays to self driving automobiles and we all have seen some of the results from their failures. I just do not think we are ready to see fully loaded 80 thousand pound rigs rolling down our highways yet. Too much uncertainty still.