ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023 - 5
Cover Story
Kodiak upfitted a Peterbilt Model 579EV with its latest sensor stack. The electric truck will join Kodiak's fleet in 2024.
integrate its autonomous stack into future EV platforms.
Studies have demonstrated up to a 10% reduction
in fuel consumption by using automated-driving
technology, he noted - which for electric trucks translates
into often-critical extended driving range.
Bye-bye 'unibrow'
The fifth-generation autonomous-truck platform
increases sensor redundancy and GPU processing
power. And noticeably, the roof-mounted " center
pod " sensor suite is gone. Instead, Kodiak opted to
relocate the front-facing Luminar Iris lidar and wide
field-of-view camera to proprietary mirror-mounted
SensorPods on each side of the truck.
" The most important thing is it doesn't have
anything on the roof anymore. What others call
the 'unibrow,' we've shaved it off, " Wiesinger said.
" When you talk to fleets they say, 'This [mirror
module] is one structure that I can easily take off
and put on again.' [The location] really resonates
with them from a maintainability and an uptime
perspective. " A SensorPod can be replaced in as little
as ten minutes, he added.
Enhanced perception capability is another benefit;
the sensors are placed at a human driver's line of sight.
The new location reportedly doubles the Kodiak
Driver's lidar coverage at long range. It also simplifies
the build process, Weisinger said.
The latest-generation Kodiak Driver adds a second
forward-facing lidar and additional camera compared
to the previous center-pod setup. " Before, we had
sensors in the middle [of the vehicle] - now we have
them left and right, so there's additional redundancy
from a sensor perspective, " Wiesinger said. " When
we designed the SensorPods, we did a field-of-view
analysis specific for the long-haul-trucking use case
and have identified the best setup. "
Fewer required modifications and touch points
enable more cost-effective integration into trucks,
which marks a significant step toward commercial
deployment of the Kodiak Driver, he said.
" In the future, if you think about potentially
moving to an [camera-based] e-mirror - a concept
that some truck manufacturers are exploring - then
we can take away the glass [mirror] and make the
SensorPod smaller, " Wiesinger said. " We already have
thoughts and designs of what that next generation
could look like. "
ADAS & AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
July 2023 5
Kodiak Robotics
ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023
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ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023 - CVR1
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ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - July 2023 - 1
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