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20 W hen the US Department of Transport (DoT) announced its regulations for autonomous vehicles in September 2016, every car behind them was a customer of one particular company – AutonomouStuff (AS). “Our technology was front and centre throughout the announcement, on the University of Michigan’s Mcity car that was built by us and outfitted with our sensors,” says Bobby Hambrick, CEO of AS. “The rest of the cars in the background [from Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute] are also equipped with some type of technology from AS.”  The Federal Automated Vehicles Policy is a key step forward for the roll-out of what the DoT calls highly automated vehicles, or those in which the vehicle can take full control of the driving task in at least some circumstances. “I believe that autonomous vehicle technology is at a tipping point, and soon every vehicle on wheels will begin to adopt it. We are in the unique position by being in the middle of the transformation of transportation,” Hambrick says. He has taken a very different approach from other companies to the development of technology for autonomous vehicles. The company started when Hambrick noticed a large gap in the industry’s supply chain. He realised that engineers developing systems in the robotics industry were having a hard time gaining access to the technology needed to solve their applications, so AS was born. The different approach is highlighted by its involvement in the first track day for autonomous cars in June 2016, with hobbyists and enthusiasts coming together to put the technology through its paces (see sidebar: Track day). “We partner with the world’s best technology providers,” Hambrick says. “We pull together the best technologies that enable self-driving, including perception with radar, Lidar and vision systems, GPS and IMU positioning, computing, actuation, software, engineering services and more. AS has supplied components to more than 1600 customers worldwide.” Its customers include those in the automotive, military, mining, maritime, and agriculture sectors, as well as academia and start-ups, which gives Hambrick a unique overview of the state of the technology. “Some of our customers The CEO of AutonomouStuff talks to Nick Flaherty about how the company is accelerating the adoption of driverless vehicles The right stuff October/November 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology