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Self-Driving Forklifts Automate Warehouses

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Burney Simpson

Automated, electric-powered forklifts developed at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute are contributing to the growing use of self-driving technology.

Coraopolis, Penn.-based Seegrid takes off-the-shelf electric-powered forklifts, adds hardware and software, and turns them into Vision Guided Vehicles (VGV), said Amanda Merrell, Seegrid marketing director.

Once transformed, the VGVs perform such warehouse tasks as Put Away; Long Haul; End of Line where the finished product is taken to a shipping dock; Replenishment where inventory is moved from storage to picking; and more.

Seegrid says its VGVs reduce labor costs, improve warehouse safety, and increase productivity.

Customers include Volvo, Daimler, Denso, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, and Freightliner.

This YouTube video cleverly contrasts the measured style of the automated VGV with its human-operated counterparts - Seegrid Vision Guided Vehicles in Action.

The hardware that Seegrid adds includes 10 cameras that keep the forklift aware of its surroundings.

The software includes coding that allows the warehouse operator to program a driving route for the VGV.

“You simply get on the machine, hit record, drive it on some particular route, get off, hit play, and it just loops around on that route forever,” Seegrid CEO Jim Rock told radio station WESA fm in Pittsburgh.

It hasn’t all been easy. Seegrid declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014 as it got ahead of itself and explored new markets. Rock helped the firm to re-focus on its core forklift sector. In addition, supermarket operator Giant Eagle, an original Seegrid funder, agreed to swap debt for a greater equity share of the firm.

The company exited bankruptcy in February 2015.

A customer that purchases VGVs will use the Seegrid Supervisor app to manage the devices. It provides for real-time monitoring, intersection control, and the ability to set operating rules, such as recharging.

To do that, the VGV is programed to visit a charging station once its battery power has dropped to a certain level, “say when it’s at 30 percent,” said Merrell.

A human is still needed to physically attach the forklift to the recharging station, said Merrell.

Rock says the VGVs have operated safely for more than 125,000 miles due to sensors that ‘tell’ the machine when a human is within a certain distance. And the VGVs beep and make other noises as they move so workers are made aware of their presence.  

Dr. Hans Moravec developed the Seegrid technology at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The company was founded in 2003 and launched its first VGV in 2008.

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Tesla, Mobileye Send D20 Losing Again

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Losing 3.2 percent of its value while falling to 143.39, the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index last week far outstripped the 0.2 percent loss in the Dow and the 0.4 percent slump in the S&P 500. With 18 losers and only two gainers, the D20 logged its second consecutive weekly decline.

The D20’s biggest loser was Tesla (TSLA), dropping close to 11 percent and falling all the way to $214.93, its lowest level since mid-March. Tesla’s plunge came after it announced that it was doubling its plan for vehicle deliveries. Israel-based Mobileye (MBLY) also dropped sharply as it announced disappointing first quarter results, losing 8.2 percent and closing at $35.00.

The two gainers for the D20 this week were Alphabet (GOOG) and Nissan’s ADR (NSANY). GOOG gained 2.7 percent closing the week at $711.12 while NSANY edged up nearly 2 percent to end the week at $18.12.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

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General Motors and Lyft to Test Self-Driving Electric Taxis on Public Roads Within 1 Year

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Just months after General Motors (GM) announced it was investing half a billion dollars in ride-hailing app Lyft, now the two partners say they will be conducting joint tests of driverless taxis on public roads-within a year.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tests will be of autonomous, electric Chevrolet Bolt taxis.

One other firm will have its hands in the mix as well. As GM recently purchased San Francisco-based tech firm Cruise Automation Inc., WSJ reports Cruise’s self-driving technology will power the cars.Lyft-GM car

WSJ says details are still being worked out, but that Lyft sources say the tests will involve average taxi customers in an undisclosed city (perhaps San Francisco?).

GM is hoping the popularity of its Chevy Bolt will soon take off, despite slow demand for electric vehicles due to most U.S. cities still lacking a sufficient supply of charging stations. GM is banking on the fact that more drivers will appreciate the larger storage space and passenger leg room of the Bolt, since the car’s electric battery is located under the floor instead of the front of the car.

This is just the latest in a long line of recent autonomous vehicle announcements by major automakers. Earlier this week, Google and Fiat-Chrysler announced a joint venture to manufacture self-driving Pacifica mini-va
ns. Elon Musk and the gang at Tesla Motors announced they are taking a short-term profit hit in order to speed up productio
n to meet the demand for its less expensive Model S, now promising to have 500,000 cars ready by 2018 rather than 2020. And Volvo announced it would be conducting “the largest and most ambitious autonomous car test yet” with its “Drive Me London” program, scheduled for next year.

With all of those announcements (and more), plus several U.S. states working on autonomous vehicle legislation, things are certainly heating up.

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D20 in a Slump With Japanese Firms

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Like the Dow and the S&P 500, the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index slumped last week. With 17 losers and three gainers, the D20 lost 1.4 percent of its value to close the week at 148.16. The Dow and S&P 500 both shed 1.3 percent of their value.

The only bright spots for the D20 were Volkswagen (VLKPY), Valeo (VLEEY), and the Chinese electric vehicle company BYD Co. (BYDDY). BYD’s ADR stock price rose 3.5 percent while Volkswagen’s jumped 3.8 percent. Valeo’s stock price soared 6.2 percent as it announced a joint venture with Siemens to manufacture electrical propulsion components for vehicles.

Driving the D20 down were Nissan (NSANY) and the Japanese auto parts supplier Denso (DNZOY). Nissan’s ADR stock price fell nearly 8 percent to $17.78 as the automaker’s prospects were downgraded by industry analysts. Denso’s ADR price drop was more dramatic as it lost 8.2 percent to finish the week at $18.86.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

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Mobileye, Peloton, Savari Named Top Young Innovators

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Burney Simpson

Influential driverless firms Mobileye, Peloton and Savari have been chosen as three of the 60 young firms worldwide that are leading technology innovation.

The list of 60 Young and Reinvented Companies Set to Transform the Technology Marketplace was released recently by ABI Research, an international business research and analysis firm that covers technology.

Firms chosen were not “mega companies driving core markets” but instead were those “smaller-harder to see-young and reinvented companies that are enabling real, sustainable change from the margins of industry,” according to ABI.

Savari was chosen due to its mix of technology in the Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications arena (V2I), said James Hodgson, industry analyst, autonomous driving and location tech, with ABI.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Savari provides onboard units for vehicles along with the street-infrastructure devices needed for V2I communication to work, said Hodgson.

And Savari has some bottom-line business connections that give it an advantage, he said.

It is on the preferred vendor list of the U.S. Department of Transportation as connected tests rollout. Plus its contract with Cadillac times well as the auto OEM prepares to release the 2017 CTS with V2V communication technology.

Mobileye bends the concept of the 60 list a bit, acknowledges Hodgson, as it is a publicly-traded firm that’s comparably larger than some of the other 60 firms.

He likes what he calls Mobileye’s realistic approach to creating a map of the world by using cameras on vehicles. Mobileye announced at the CES 2016 in January its plan to partner with GM, Volkswagen, and other auto OEMs to create maps for autonomous vehicles.

That lays the groundwork for images that can support semi-autonomous vehicles in the 2025-2030 timeframe.

In comparison, competitors like HERE seek to use LiDAR and other sensors to build maps.

“We’re not ready for that, there aren’t enough vehicles on the road with LiDAR,” argues Hodgson.

The work of Peloton also fits the realistic approach to implementing autonomous and connected technology, said Hodgson.

Peloton’s Truck Platooning System electronically couples pairs of freight-hauling trucks by using V2V communications, radar-based braking systems, and proprietary vehicle control algorithms.

Tests have shown paired trucks save on fuel due to better aerodynamics, and the monitoring of the vehicles means safer driving.

“This technology makes for a safer, more efficient way of moving goods around,” said Hodgson. “This is not 20-30 years from now. It’s achievable in the short term. It can transform its industry.”

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Beverly Hills Plans Driverless Shuttle

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Burney Simpson

Beverly Hills is seeking to operate autonomous shuttle vehicles as part of its public transportation system. The City Council unanimously approved the project recently.

The autonomous shuttles would provide on-demand, point-to-point transportation within the city. Users would request a ride with a smartphone app.Mayor John Mirisch proposed the idea last June in a column for the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Mirisch said the shuttles could reduce congestion and the demand for parking, while increasing mobility and road safety within the city’s 5.7 square miles.

Mirisch believes the shuttle could solve the ‘first mile/last mile’ challenge for riders who will be taking the Purple Line of the Los Angeles Metro subway. Plans call for two Purple Line stops in Beverly Hills, though those may not open until 2026.

Mirisch tells Driverless Transportation that the Beverly Hills shuttle plan is now at the conceptual stage.

“We want to set out a vision, look at the technology, and determine how far away we are from that,” Mirisch said. “We will also look at the legal environment, and determine how we can get to our goal.”

Under phase one of the city’s plan, Beverly Hills will develop partnerships with autonomous vehicle manufacturers. It will also be working with regulators and policy makers to create an outline of the project.

Beverly Hill’s shuttle concept comes shortly after a proposed $121 billion, 40-year transportation plan from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The county is projected to grow by 2.4 million people by 2057.

But the Authority’s plan doesn’t include driverless vehicles, Mirisch said.

“Autonomous vehicles can transform and revolutionize transportation. When you are considering spending that much money, let’s look at this disruptive technology, and find if it can it grow mobility, convenience, safety, and so on,” said Mirisch.

“(The Authority) plans to use yesterday’s transportation – heavy rail, buses. If we want to build for the next 100 years, we should look at the technology of the next 100 years.”

The first driverless shuttle in the U.S. is scheduled to start operating this summer at the Bishop Ranch business park in San Ramon, Calif. (See “Driverless Shuttle Gives Momentum to GoMentum Station”). The shuttle will be operated by EasyMile, a French firm that has run a number of driverless projects in Europe.

Photo of Beverly Hills by Prayitno, 2011.

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Zoox Recruits from Tesla with Live Tests Coming

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Burney Simpson

Driverless car creator Zoox is bringing in staff from Tesla as it celebrates being approved for live testing of its driverless car on California roads by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Zoox is the 12th firm approved by the regulator.

Zoox seeks to revolutionize the transportation service industry, not invent a new type of automobile, according to an April 2014 interview with co-founder Tim Kentley-Klay by Driverless Transportation (See “Catching Up with Zoox”).

That fits with a current company description posted on a LinkedIn site of new board member Laurie Yoler. She has an extensive history with Tesla and joined the Zoox board in December.

According to Yoler’s write up, Zoox is:

“a robotics company pioneering autonomous mobility. We are developing our own fully autonomous electric vehicle and the supporting ecosystem required to bring the technology to market at scale. … Zoox aims to provide the next generation of mobility-as-a-service in urban environments. The company is venture backed and presently in stealth mode.”

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is growing in the autonomous vehicle space as car-sharing, ride-sharing firms like Uber, Lyft, and Car2Go expand. MaaS could become a combination of publicly- and privately-owned transportation services provided on a subscription basis. Some say MaaS could replace private vehicle ownership for many consumers.

According to press reports Zoox was founded by Kentley-Klay, an Australian film director and designer, and Jesse Levinson, a Stanford University engineer who worked with Sebastian Thrun, the first director of Google’s self-driving car program.

TESLA CONNECTION

Zoox offers a virtually empty website. Its street address is the same as that of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory that sits on the Stanford University campus. Stanford operates SLAC for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

zoox4Yoler is a venture capital investor and a founding board member of Tesla, serving in various roles with the electric vehicle OEM from 2003 to 2013.

Zoox appears to be recruiting others from Tesla which last year launched ‘Autopilot’, an over-the-air software update that gave many of its vehicles semi-autonomous capabilities.

Current Zoox staff with a Tesla background include its Head of Talent, the Director of Manufacturing and Supply Chain, and a talent and marketing staffer, according to LinkedIn postings.

Zoox may also have connections with the influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Yoler was with DFJ when it backed Tesla.

By some reports Zoox is backed by DFJ though the VC firm’s website doesn’t list it in its current portfolio of companies.

NO WINDSHIELD, WHEEL, PEDALS

Zoox’s first public model was a futuristic roadster-style vehicle that predated the driverless car that Mercedes rolled out to massive attention at CES 2015. That Zoox model had no front or back, no windshield, no steering wheel, no brake pedal.

In a 2013 video from Drive the Nation, Kentley-Klay discusses his design concept that offered four independent control systems centered on the wheels, and four seats that faced each other.

At one point, the vehicle was called the L4, a nod to the Level 4 fully autonomous vehicle as defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The goal was a 2020 launch.

Kentley-Klay’s thingsivemade.com website provides insight on his view towards autonomous vehicles, along with photos of his visiting the Google campus to meet Anthony Levandowski, at one time the leader of Google’s autonomous efforts.

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Cruise Automation Making Big Autonomous Plans As GM Agrees to Acquire Startup

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Cruise Automation is wasting no time making big plans for autonomous drive technology development after General Motors (GM) agreed to buy the Silicon Valley startup earlier this month.

According to Nasdaq.com, the deal is expected to close by the middle of this year.

Nasdaq also reports that the deal is contingent upon Cruise reaching a few milestones, though the specifics were not reported. Cruise reportedly still hopes to operate largely independent of GM and retain its top engineers.

Detroit News reports that Cruise is already making big plans, including hiring a slew of new autonomous car engineers. Cruise will reportedly continue to be based in San Francisco, where it has been working for the past three years developing and testing autonomous car technology on San Francisco streets.

GM reportedly plans to “invest significantly” in growing Cruise Automation’s business.

“GM’s commitment to autonomous vehicles is inspiring, deliberate, and completely in line with our vision to make transportation safer and more accessible,” Kyle Vogt, co-founder of Cruise Automation, said in a statement, as quoted by Detroit News. “We are excited to be partnering with GM and believe this is a ground-breaking and necessary step toward rapidly commercializing autonomous vehicle technology.”

Cruise Automation is just one move GM has made in the past year, as it looks to aggressively pursue autonomous car development. Just a few months ago, GM invested $500 million in Lyft, a ride-hailing app similar to Uber, and it announced a car-sharing business similar to ZipCar in Ann Arbor, Michigan called Maven, which it hopes will prove popular with college students.

Jim Scheinman, founder of Maven, said he invested in Cruise as well some time ago. He hoped progress such as GM’s acquisition of the company will show the world that Google isn’t the only dog in the autonomous race.

Nasdaq analysts say GM has advanced significantly in the driverless race through strategic partnerships.

“GM itself is in transition. Long relying on parts suppliers, such as Delphi Automotive PLC, to deliver the latest technologies, the company is now more interested in direct partnerships or developing expertise in-house,” Nasdaq reported.

GM is committed to bringing autonomous technology to the masses.

“Fully autonomous vehicles can bring our customers enormous benefits in terms of greater convenience, lower cost and improved safety for their daily mobility needs,” GM President Dan Ammann said in a statement.

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March Brings Takeover Fever to Driverless Tech

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Burney Simpson

The Ides of March brought a number takeovers and company investments in the driverless world. LiDAR sensors are particularly hot. Here’s a roundup.

GM could be paying as much as $1 billion for Cruise Automation, a firm best known for retrofitting autonomous technology to Audi vehicles.

Why is that worth $1 billion? The assumption being that Cruise has got something much bigger that GM wants.

But Cruise is playing it quiet. Its public website is virtually empty, except for the line ‘Cruise + General Motors  Join the Driverless Revolution.’ Click thru and you see more than a dozen job listings for positions that will help deliver whatever it is GM wants.

Silicon Valley-based Toyota Research Institute brought on board the entire 16-member staff of Jaybridge Robotics, a spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jaybridge has been a supplier to the industrial and agriculture industries.

Jaybridge CEO Jeremy Brown said in a press release that the two would focus on reducing traffic accidents. That certainly narrows it down.

HI-RES FLASH LIDAR

Germany-based Tier 1 supplier Continental bought the automotive division of Advanced Scientific Concepts, provider of 3D LiDAR cameras and sensors. Price not disclosed.

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based ASC claims its hi-res flash LiDAR can ‘see’ through dust, fog and other real-world problems that might obscure the road.

Continental said in a release that the purchase would help it to “mass produce flash LiDARS at an affordable price” for the commercial auto industry.

ASC engineers will join the Chassis & Safety Division of Continental in Santa Barbara, led by Arnaud Lagandre, and it might grow to have 100 engineers.

(By the way, the graphic for this story is by Continental.)

One more for 2016, and we’re still in March.

Sensata, a Netherlands-based global parts supplier, ‘partnered’ with Quanergy to help it expand sales of its LiDAR sensors. Quanergy this January launched a LiDAR device that costs $250, compared with the high-end product from Velodyne that costs thousands.

BUILDING ON 2015 BUYS

That helps us to transition to 2015 because Quanergy received an investment from Tier 1 supplier Delphi last year.

These Tier 1 guys will sell so many LiDAR devices that the price will go down, right?

Delphi also purchased Ottomatika, a Carnegie Mellon spin off that develops autonomous driving software.

Lear Corp. bought Arada Systems, the Troy, Mich.-based supplier of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2X), and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications systems.

Lear, a supplier of automotive seating and electrical distributions systems, last year also swallowed Autonet Mobile for its telematics and apps services (See “Lear’s Arada Buy Expands V2X Line”).

And don’t forget that GM made its $500 million investment in ride-sharing firm Lyft (See “GM Invests Half a Billion in Lyft for Autonomous Car Network”).

Does this mean GM is planning for a world where consumers stop buying cars, and instead rely on Uber, Lyft, public transportation, bikes, i.e. Mobility as a Service, to get around?

Maybe, though it’s more likely GM is preparing for whatever the unpredictable consumer wants.

Right now, things are changing so fast, there’s no telling what we’ll see in 10 years.

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California Ratchets Up the Driverless Battle

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The battle among states for driverless-vehicle technology and testing dollars is heating up.

California Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang last week introduced a proposal that she says will keep the state in the forefront of developing autonomous technology.

The Republican from Diamond Bar introduced AB 2682 that would require the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to hold hearings if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposes a model state policy on driverless vehicles.

NHTSA has said it plans to announce the policy this year.

California has been a driverless leader with Mountain View-based Google working on its vehicles for over five years in the Golden State.

However, Google has been frustrated by driverless proposals by the California DMV that would require equipment like steering wheels, and that drivers have special certificates to operate the vehicles.

Google believes the proposals are onerous while the DMV argues the rules should be tough as the revolutionary technology evolves.

BUSINESS-FRIENDLY STATES

Chang’s proposal presumably would open up the DMV’s rule-making process.

“The DMV is not exactly known for being an incubator for high-tech,” Chang said in a press release. “We are competing with business-friendly states like Texas to keep the tech in California so we need to make sure we don’t lose another opportunity for keeping jobs in California – and potential federal funding.”

Google began testing in Texas last year, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has asked for $4 billion to speed the development of driverless vehicles.

States are also competing for testing dollars.

California’s Silicon Valley is home to the GoMentum Station and its 20 miles of test roads. Michigan opened the 32-acre Mcity facility in Ann Arbor in July, and plans to develop the massive Willow Run site in Ypsilanti (See “Michigan Launches 330-Acre Autonomous Vehicle Test Site”).

Another major player is the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. It is expanding its well-established auto testing operations in Blacksburg to the highly-congested Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

TENNESSEE – AIN’T NO PLACE I’D RATHER BE

Also last week, the Tennessee Senate’s Transportation and Safety Committee approved SB 1561 that would allow driverless testing in the state. The full Senate is to hear the bill this Wednesday.

Tennessee state Sen. Mark Green said he introduced the proposal to encourage auto OEMs to expand their manufacturing in the state (See “Careful Steps on Driverless Laws for Tennessee, Virginia”).

Tennessee is already home to plants operated by GM, Nissan, and Volkswagen, along with the Tier 1 supplier Denso.

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