by Anthony Levandowski
I’ve worked on autonomous vehicles (AVs) for almost 20 years. Throughout my career, I have seen the industry make massive strides in the pursuit of AV and I am grateful to have contributed to some of the key milestones. Over the years, there have been a lot of predictions made, billions of dollars spent, and a huge amount of hype.
The global AV market is estimated to be worth more than $800 billion and AV companies continue to raise many billions every year. However, since I last published my thoughts on the state of the industry in 2018, not much has advanced in terms of AV deployments. The simple truth of the matter is that we are still years away from having driverless vehicles at any meaningful scale on public highways or city streets, and commercially viable AV deployments will take much longer.
Don’t get me wrong, I am still a true believer in AVs and am more excited about the ultimate vision than I’ve ever been. The vision for our roads is compelling: fewer traffic jams, more efficient transport of goods, safer journeys and millions of hours and lives saved. If you imagine the internet as our planet’s nervous system, then autonomous vehicles would be the circulatory system. There’s no doubt in my mind that all of that will still happen. We just need to be smarter about how we can actually get there.
Returning as Pronto’s CEO
In order to bring autonomous vehicles onto streets everywhere, where every car knows where it is going and can get there safely without any human intervention, AV companies face a complex set of challenges. Solving these challenges is both time-consuming and expensive — and with the tech currently available, it is simply not possible. The truth of the matter is we are years away from having driverless vehicles on the roads everywhere.
When we started Pronto our goal was to deliver real solutions to real customers as soon as possible in order to unlock a realistic, evolutionary path to commercially viable autonomous deployments. The last three years have validated many of our assumptions and I am as confident as ever that the approach we’ve taken is the right one. I’m proud to say that we’re still very much on that path and that I’m returning as the company’s CEO.
The Evolutionary Approach to Self Driving
I believe that we can make a real difference by safely integrating new technology with driving in a constrained environment: off road haulage. In 2018, Pronto became the first — and is still the only — company to drive coast-to-coast in the United States without a single driver input to the vehicle’s controls. It was an incredible milestone for the industry and it helped us advance our technology even further. We are now applying that experience and more than 15 years’ worth of other technological advances to A2B by Pronto, the world’s most advanced autonomous haulage system (AHS).
While I believe AV is not ready for driving on public roads, it is ready for off-road. And the off-road industry is ready for AV. Off-road haulage is a multi-billion dollar industry that is mired with concerns around safety and efficiency. So far this year, in the US alone, nine miners have been killed and 185 have been injured in accidents involving powered haulage. Year to date, this is the highest number of powered haulage fatalities since 2006, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
But autonomy is not just an investment in safety, it’s an investment in efficiency. Autonomous haulage can reduce tire wear, fuel consumption, maintenance costs, and operating costs. The benefits for site owners are clear: improved safety, reduced cost, and higher productivity.
What we’re doing with A2B allows the mining industry to realize these benefits now. With our cutting-edge technology, mines can get up and running years faster than with existing systems, and have a return on investment in their first year of operation. We’re able to do this because we’ve upgraded our on-road autonomy stack for off-road driving by combining it with data collected from mines in the Arctic Circle to the Australian Outback, and everywhere in between. The result is what we believe to be the most advanced AHS in the world — and we are very excited to see our customers begin to roll it out.
It’s Time to Deliver
As I see it, the best way to advance autonomy for the long run is to work on products that deliver value — and save lives — right now. So, instead of chasing the dream of on-road AVs, we’re focused on shipping AVs to off-road customers today. We’re working with some of the world’s largest mining companies as well as some smaller operations to roll out A2B, and I’m grateful for the chance to be back.
It’s time to deliver.
Anthony
