First Ride in a Robotruck
I had the chance to take my first ride in a class 8 truck, and then it was even in an autonomous truck. Andreas Wendel, CTO at Kodiak Robotics, invited me for a an impressive ride along HWY85 and merging on the crazy merge at HWY 280 in California.
The truck was fully loaded with 40 tons and the Kodiak Driver AV-system handled all very well. Pretty boring, or as they say, “uneventful” ride.
The engine can be seen in the pictures, with all the sensors built into the side mirrors. The computing unit is in the driver cabin and the system is agnostic of the truck, handling both combustion engine and electric trucks equally well. We experienced a few scenarios, with vehicles stopped on the emergency lane and the truck reducing speed – as required by CA vehicular traffic law – or abandoning lane changes, when faster passenger vehicles didn’t make clear whether they pass or slow down.
After about 190+ rides in driverless robotaxis and many rides with my Tesla FSD , this was my first ride in a robotruck. Summary: the future of trucking is here, and there is no stopping it.
This article was also puplished in German.
