Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2023 - 14

truck-sensor
modularity
Enhancing
Kodiak upfitted a Peterbilt Model 579EV with its latest sensor
stack. The electric truck will join Kodiak's fleet in 2024.
Kodiak Robotics' fifth-generation sensor stack and new SensorPods boost
sensor and GPU performance and improve power efficiency.
by Ryan Gehm
K
odiak Robotics introduced what it claims is an industry-first
at the 2023 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo: an
autonomous Class 8 truck that is fully electric. Kodiak upfitted
a Peterbilt Model 579EV electric truck with its latest SAE
Level 4 automated-driving system, the Kodiak Driver.
" It is the first-ever autonomous electric truck, not only for Kodiak
but for the industry, " Michael Wiesinger, VP of commercialization for
the five-year-old autonomous-tech startup, told Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering during a vehicle walkaround in Anaheim, California.
The 579EV is the second vehicle platform that Kodiak has upfitted
with its fifth-generation sensor stack that was introduced in April 2023.
The new sensor suite already is integrated on Kenworth T680 dieselpowered
trucks in Kodiak's fleet. The integration on the 579EV, which
will join Kodiak's fleet in 2024, illustrates the company's assertion that
its autonomous system is vehicle- and powertrain-agnostic. Wiesinger
said that Kodiak will explore other sustainable vehicle platforms, such
as hydrogen fuel-cell trucks, as they are introduced to the market.
The Peterbilt Model 579EV can be recharged in three hours and
provides a peak 670 hp (500 kW). Designed for short-haul and drayage
deployments, the truck has a range of up to 150 miles (241 km).
Wiesinger said that as EV technology advances and range increases,
Kodiak will be well-positioned to integrate its autonomous stack into
future EV platforms. Studies have demonstrated up to a 10% reduction
in fuel consumption by using automated-driving technology,
14 August 2023
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-ofview
camera to proprietary mirror-mounted
SensorPods on each side of the truck.
" All of the sensors are integrated in the SensorPod. The
unit is intrinsically calibrated; it is never going out of calibration, "
Wiesinger said. " The most important thing is it
doesn't have anything on the roof anymore. What others
call the 'unibrow,' we've shaved it off, " he quipped.
Ease of maintenance was a major consideration for
the new setup. " 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.
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
KODIAK ROBOTICS
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - August 2023

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