{"id":6857,"date":"2020-08-05T12:48:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T10:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=6857"},"modified":"2020-08-05T12:48:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T10:48:48","slug":"autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2020\/08\/05\/autonomy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can Autonomy Do for the Middle Mile?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gatik fleet completes autonomous middle-mile deliveries by doing a \u201cconstrained Level 4\u201d autonomous trip on fixed point-to-point-to-point routes instead of a geofenced radius. Photo courtesy of Gatik.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The path to autonomous travel is a circuitous one. It winds through multiple transportation types \u2014 from robotaxis, drones, last-mile, and robot deliveries, to on-demand shuttles and over-the-road trucking.<\/p>\n

For each use case, autonomy comes with significant hurdles to full deployment. Yet, when fully realized, autonomy promises to alleviate traditional transportation pain points and drastically reduce costs.<\/p>\n

Autonomous start-up Gatik is exploiting one sweet spot that addresses the hurdles and the benefits: \u201cTo deliver on the promise of autonomy, we believe that focusing on the middle mile is a more rapid way to commercialize the technology,\u201d says Sam Saad, Gatik\u2019s head of operations.<\/p>\n

Not long-haul trucking or last mile, the middle mile involves the transport of goods from a warehouse or distribution center to brick-and-mortar facilities such as retail stores, micro-fulfillment centers, offices, or other distribution points.<\/p>\n

The middle mile is an expensive part of logistics and supply chains that is ripe for efficiency gains and cost savings, Saad says. Yet it involves known, repeatable routes that reduce the variabilities of travel. Enter a viable use case for autonomy.<\/p>\n

Saad says Gatik removes many of the edge cases encountered in a robotaxi environment by doing a \u201cconstrained Level 4\u201d autonomous trip on fixed point-to-point-to-point routes instead of a geofenced radius. They\u2019re completed with 11- to 20-foot box trucks equipped with Gatik\u2019s autonomous system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith robotaxis, you need to solve for the entire operational design domain and landscape,\u201d Saad says. \u201cIf I’m a robotaxi passenger, I want to be able to go to my end address, not dropped off five minutes away or restricted from certain neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gatik will leave the long-haul and last-mile trips to other autonomous providers. \u201cThere are a lot of really good people doing great work in that (long-haul) environment,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd similarly, we don’t touch the slower final-mile AVs or sidewalk robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gatik can travel on the highway, though the company\u2019s middle-mile routes are predominantly in semi-urban environments. Those are \u201cmost urban environments you can think of, except for maybe downtown Manhattan during rush hour,\u201d Saad says.<\/p>\n

A Path to Adoption<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Since July of last year, Gatik has been making deliveries for Walmart on a short route between two stores in Walmart\u2019s headquarters town of Bentonville, Ark. An autonomous vehicle (AV) operator is in each truck for every trip.<\/p>\n

Gatik is testing with other clients but hasn\u2019t gone public with them yet. When the time is right to integrate with fleets beyond tests, Gatik is looking for customers with \u201ca burgeoning middle mile that they’re looking to automate,\u201d Saad says. \u201cThe important part is narrowing down which route we can deliver that promise of autonomy on.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Saad wouldn\u2019t give a specific timeline for removing the in-cab operator, \u201cThe routes that we deploy earlier, such as the Walmart route, will be the ones in which the operator will be removed sooner,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are looking to do so eminently.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the safety operator is removed, an interim yet pivotal step to autonomous transportation will be tele operations. While teleoperators don\u2019t directly control steering, braking, or acceleration on public roads, their role is to monitor, update path planning, and initiate recovery behaviors or other non-direct actions if needed.<\/p>\n

For this transition, Saad believes Gatik\u2019s defined use case provides a shorter runway to AV adoption. \u201cWith our restricted Level 4 use-case scenarios, the right vehicle form factor, and the right algorithms powering our decision making, we’ll be able to start driving autonomously on routes within four to six weeks of deployment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Service or Tech Provider?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

A key question in the evolution of autonomy centers on who owns, controls, and maintains the autonomous equipment, which could change over time.<\/p>\n

In a full-service lease scenario, the AV provider could lease the vehicles to fleets and manage a menu of services such as maintenance and tele-operations. But that could change over time, as fleets gain the competencies to manage the AVs and hardware in house.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to being a service provider or a technology provider, or some combination of the two,\u201d he says. \u201cIt really depends on where our customers are.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the regulatory environment, Saad points to the 40 states that have legislation or executive orders allowing for some form of AV adoption.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost states are progressive in terms of how they look at AVs and balance safety for all road users,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce we acquire the right permits and licenses for each jurisdiction, we can actually openly operate in a majority of spaces today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s incumbent on autonomous service providers to work closely with regulators to help them further legislation that makes sense for everyone. \u201cWe recognize that autonomy is a team sport,\u201d he says. \u201cWe might be competing in the marketplace, but when it comes to regulations, everyone should be working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Pressing Need<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The exponential growth of e-commerce \u2014 combined with an inelastic supply chain that isn\u2019t meeting real-time demands \u2014 is a key driver of autonomy in the transportation of goods, Saad says. This has resulted in a dramatic push to inventory optimization across multiple locations.<\/p>\n

He gives the example of a customer who orders an item and wants to pick it up at a certain store at a specific time, where the traditional cycle of replenishing stock within a two- to seven-day window isn\u2019t quick enough.<\/p>\n

AVs, with a promised cost reduction and an easier ability to travel during off hours, can facilitate this push. \u201cNow you’re able to move goods among your multiple locations to meet customer demand and ensure that you close that sale,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When it comes to whether AVs make financial sense for a first-adopter fleet, \u201cWe\u2019ll offer competitive prices from day one,\u201d Saad says. \u201cWe\u2019re working closely with our clients to understand what their costs are in middle mile and then ensuring that we can offer our vehicles for the right use cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

What benefits can first adopters realize, when it might be easier to let others to test the waters?<\/p>\n

Saad sees parallels to when warehouse fulfillment became automated 10 years ago. \u201cSome organizations got ahead of the curve and managed to understand and implement automation, and they’re seeing significant ROI,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the organizations that see automation of on-road transportation in a similar fashion are going to reap the benefits of being more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Chris Brown<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.truckinginfo.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Gatik fleet completes autonomous middle-mile deliveries by doing a \u201cconstrained Level 4\u201d autonomous trip on fixed point-to-point-to-point routes instead of a geofenced radius. Photo courtesy of Gatik.\u00a0 The path to autonomous travel is a circuitous one. It winds through multiple transportation types \u2014 from robotaxis, drones, last-mile, and robot deliveries, to on-demand shuttles and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[8],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6859,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6857\/revisions\/6859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}