Shift Magazine - December 2020 - 19

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Vol. 3, Issue 3

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it comes to autonomous driving and connected vehicles, " Muñoz said.
" We see that because of the pandemic,
the robot taxis are going to continue to be
a solid solution, because the technology is
getting better and better. But at the same
time, we also believe delivery as a business is going to be increasing significantly.
So we see vehicles on platforms utilized
for people transportation or for delivery. "
COVID-19 concerns severely complicated the use and business case for
autonomous passenger vehicles. Virus
fears also pumped demand for contactless delivery systems for goods, prescriptions, fast food and groceries.
Yet even before the virus, developers
and makers were looking at cargo's stronger business case and possibly lower
safety barriers vs. people movers.
Nuro, a developer of small, driverless,
electric delivery vehicles, was given
NHTSA's first safety exemptions from
mirrors and windshield requirements in
February.
The industry took note of those eased
safety standards and a resulting cost
reduction for driverless delivery.
" It's a shorter path from a business
and a technical perspective, " says Sam

Walmart will partner with Cruise next year in a grocery-delivery pilot in Arizona.

Abuelsamid, an analyst with Guidehouse
Insights.
" So if you think about it for a robotaxi,
customers expect a smooth, safe ride. If
the automated driving system is not quite
as smooth in its control, if it is a little herky-jerky, people are not going to like how
it feels. As for a package, as long as it's
not shaking and damaging it, packages
are not going to complain. "
Jennifer Dukarski, a lawyer and head
of the mobility law group at Butzel Long,
observes that the ready capital, the limited-access routes of long-haul trucking
and small, low-speed, last-mile delivery
robots entail less business and safety risk
than passenger transport.
" You would expect that you are going
to have fewer safety issues from the
standpoint of harming a pedestrian, if an
errant [lightweight] delivery vehicle hits

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somebody perhaps bicycling, or if it goes
through a crosswalk where a person is
crossing, " she said.
" It's definitely going to have less of an
impact than, say, an F-150 would. You
can't escape science. "
Self-driving company Aurora has said
it is prioritizing the development of longhaul trucking autonomy over passenger
vehicles, despite a system that works
equally well for any application.
Co-founder Sterling Anderson cites
safety and profit. And he adds that his
company has a long-range lidar sensing
suite that gives it a market-entry edge
into a business worth $700 billion to
$800 billion in the U.S. alone.
" We have cracked the key technical
impediment to an industry offering for highway speeds, " he said. " We are going to go
first into the market that is trucking. "

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Editor Leslie J. Allen at 313-446-6088.

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Shift Magazine - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Shift Magazine - December 2020