Shift Magazine - December 2021 - 4

SHORT BYTES
EMERGING APPLICATION
L
ogistics company OX Delivers is piloting
in Rwanda an electric transport
truck designed to help developing
nations fight climate change and spur
economic growth.
The OX EV is an all-terrain truck that's
shipped flat and ready to assemble. The
U.K. company's goal is to bring zero
emissions and social mobility to emerging
markets such as parts of sub-Saharan
Africa, which sometimes lack reliable
transportation.
In Rwanda, businesses book time
OX EV: Shipped flat and ready to assemble
slots to use the electric truck to transport
their goods to market. This is done with
an app that's part of OX's pay-as-you-go
logistics service.
OX says
some
customers
in
its
Rwanda pilot already have tripled their
sales volumes by having access to the
truck.
The company started designing the
vehicle in the United Kingdom last year.
Dana Inc. of Maumee, Ohio, supplies
the electric propulsion system for
the
truck.
OX has received more than $9 million
in funding for the development of this
vehicle, including support from Innovate
UK, the Royal Academy of Engineering
and the Advanced Propulsion Centre.
- Gail Kachadourian Howe
BIG BOT ON CAMPUS
M
ichigan State University will deploy an electric
autonomous bus on its campus in January pending
additional testing and NHTSA validation,
the school's mobility research faculty announced in early
November.
The bus was produced by Turkish vehicle manufacturer
Karsan and equipped with autonomous technology from
Adastec Corp., a San Francisco-based company that offers
autonomous transportation platforms for vehicles. Adastec
received a $100,000 grant from the Michigan Office of
Mobility and Electrification to support the project.
The bus had undergone about 270 tests as of Nov. 5. It
will complete about 630 total test trips before passengers
are allowed on, MSU said.
" Real life is much different from tests and pilots, and
we have [tested the area] maybe a million times in simulation, "
Adastec CEO Ali Peker said. " But in real worlds,
people act differently. Generally, to make this bus safe,
you don't want to make assumptions. "
Once it's fully operational, the 22-seat bus will run from
early morning to evening along a 2.5-mile route stretching
from the south edge to the center of campus. It will
charge at night. All traffic lights along the route will be
controlled through intelligent roadside units and communicate
with the bus to improve its safety, MSU said.
An Adastec driver will be on the bus at all times to take
control of it if needed, MSU said.
- C.J. Moore
4
shift * december 2021
The Michigan State University bus will have an Adastec driver on board.
Shift Magazine - December 2021

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