In an effort to improve the safety of autonomous driving, Plus.ai, a leading provider of self-driving truck technology, plans to open safety testing facilities in all permissible states in the U.S by the end of 2020. With both closed testing and public road testing, the company hopes to use pilot runs to broaden the complex driving scenarios that autonomous systems within trucks can handle in various driving conditions.
In order to fully ensure autonomous trucks are ready to drive on public roads, Plus.ai will conduct tests in 17 states nationwide, many of which have never previously tested autonomous trucks, across all regions and climates. The trucks will encounter different weather and terrain such as Minnesota in the winter, as well as California, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
Plus.ai expects that the new testing sites will be officially selected by Q1 in 2020, while implementation will take place through the rest of year through an accelerated process with a safety driver and operations specialist available for manual takeover, when necessary. The company is also developing new metrics to measure the readiness of its autonomous driving system more accurately and ensure the technology is safe for commercial deployment around the U.S.
“We want to build a technology solution that is applicable across different weather, terrains, and driving scenarios. Testing our trucks’ readiness means we need to put them through stringent safety tests, on every highway in the country. That is why we are committing to expand our testing to all states that allow autonomous vehicle testing by the end of this year,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder, Plus.ai.
