Uncrewed Systems Technology 048 | Kodiak Driver | 5G focus | Tiburon USV | Skypersonic Skycopter and Skyrover | CES 2023 | Limbach L 2400 DX and L 550 EFG | NXInnovation NX 100 Enviro | Solar power focus | Protegimus Protection

well as what to many are the unattractive conditions and terms of the work. As a result, the country’s logistics industry was roughly 80,000 truck drivers shy of its optimal worker count in 2021, and as more and more older drivers retire without anyone to replace them, that figure is expected to grow to 160,000 by 2030. However, autonomous trucking would allow freight workers to limit their journeys to local logistics centres, truck transfer hubs and remote monitoring stations, instead of enduring countless uncomfortable driving hours, sleeping in or above the cab, and so on. And without drivers needing to sleep and recuperate between their 11-hour driving stints, self-driving cargo trucks could operate 24/7, with only short intermittent stops for refuelling, tyre changes and other maintenance. The growing demands on the logistics industry for freight and better working conditions could therefore be addressed entirely through autonomy. Such benefits have been recognised by the industry for some time, and as a result there are now some major players achieving success in autonomous trucking. Kodiak Robotics in particular is led by a number of experts in the field, many of whom cut their teeth on the Google self-driving car project (better known these days as Waymo), including its CTO Andreas Wendel, who has worked on autonomous driving for more than 10 years. ambition Kodiak Robotics was formed in 2018, bringing together engineers fromWaymo, Apple, Uber, Lyft and other companies to develop self-driving trucks (Images courtesy of Kodiak Robotics) Kodiak Driver | Dossier 25 Uncrewed Systems Technology | February/March 2023