From Forbes, March 17:
Plus Expands Autonomous Trucking With TIER IV And Traton Partnerships
Autonomous driving software company Plus has just announced a partnership to enhance autonomous trucking in Japan by teaming up with autonomous software provider TIER IV. The Tokyo-based TIER IV, which makes open-source software for autonomous driving, is working closely with the Japanese government to execute its new Autonomy 2.0 efforts for Level 4 autonomous trucks on Japan’s expressways. The partnership also aligns both companies with recent AI trends, because trucking has become a valuable application for “physical AI.”
This news follows another partnership announcement from Plus late last year, when the Silicon Valley-based company released its SAE Level 4 trucking software in Europe and the United States in partnership with Traton — the $40 billion trucking subsidiary of Volkswagen — and its brands Scania, MAN and International.
Addressing Japan’s Acute Shortage Of Truck Drivers
The new partnership in Japan brings together Plus’s end-to-end virtual driver AI model with TIER IV’s Autoware-based platform to create a solution for L4 autonomous trucking. This solution will be co-engineered by the two companies specifically for the Japan market.Although the need for autonomous trucks is global, Japan’s government has taken a particular interest in this area and created special programs to fund L4 autonomous truck development and deployment based on vehicles from Japanese manufacturers. Why? Not enough truck drivers to meet demand. One independent study projected that Japan will have fewer than two-thirds of the truck drivers it needs by 2030....
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Recently:
"Driverless trucking – ‘On the cusp’ of a revolution" (AUR)
