Kodiak, Vay partner on Assisted Autonomy operations
Through Assisted Autonomy, human drivers can remotely pilot a vehicle in certain low-speed situations, such as when dealing with law enforcement and emergency responders.
Vay and Kodiak Robotics have partnered to enable Kodiak’s Assisted Autonomy elements of the Kodiak Driver. Assisted Autonomy allows a human to remotely control an autonomous vehicle in certain situations, such as at customer locations or when interacting with first responders.
"Assisted Autonomy provides the Kodiak Driver with more flexibility to deliver our customers’ freight in a greater range of locations and scenarios," said Don Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak. "No matter the maturity of an autonomous driving system, there are still scenarios that will benefit from human assistance, if only as a backup. Assisted Autonomy can be helpful in situations such as interpreting law enforcement hand signals.”
To support Kodiak’s Assisted Autonomy, the company has deployed several Assisted Autonomy hubs, or Vay Stations, and software tools to allow communication between these stations and Kodiak Driver-powered vehicles. At each Vay Station, Assisted Autonomy drivers can livestream a 360-degree view of the area around Kodiak’s trucks. Each driver holds a CDL, and each Vay Station has a steering wheel, pedals, and other vehicle controls to allow each user to remotely drive a truck when necessary.
"Over the last year, Vay has proven the use cases for remote driving—both in B2C and B2B settings,” said Thomas von der Ohe, co-founder and CEO of Vay. “The strategic partnership with Kodiak will expand the B2B use cases to trucks.”
Kodiak vehicles operating driverlessly in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico are utilizing Assisted Autonomy, and Kodiak Driver is using Vay’s technology for launching and landing trucks at customer facilities as well.
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