26 As far as harsh proving grounds for autonomy go, Switzerland sets the bar high. A mountainous nation, many Swiss highways and other intercity roads pass through tunnels that blot out GNSS signals and create cramped, trafficcongested spaces that are deeply unforgiving to driving errors. Even in the cities, tunnels remain widespread, with the Swiss Confederation’s city planners having eagerly distributed them. These, along with the frequently inclement weather causing risks such as tyre slip, sensor degradation and moisture ingress, are some of the principle challenges that Switzerland-headquartered LOXO has had to overcome in creating its selfdriving road technologies. As LOXO’s CEO and co-founder, Amin Amini, explains: “Switzerland has dozens of kilometres of highway tunnels, although as a company developing B2B self-driving systems, primarily aimed at last-mile and middle-mile delivery, we just have city tunnels to deal with. “But, here in Bern, where we’re based and where we operate, our test vehicles have to drive through three specific and very lengthy tunnels on a daily basis just on their standard trial route. We would not have made it far as a company at all if we’d never learned to empower autonomous driving with something other than GNSS.” Forced to tackle some of the most hazardous physical and environmental hurdles right from its starting line, LOXO has engineered a number of novel, software-based approaches aimed at overcoming key problems (not only within its own surroundings, but perennial across the self-driving world) and enabling the SAE’s Level 4 of autonomous self-driving intelligence. These software solutions are enshrined within the LOXO Digital Driver (LDD). Similar to the Kodiak Driver product from Kodiak Robotics in the US (see issue 48), the LDD can be applied to virtually any road vehicle with the appropriate sensing, computation and by-wire control systems, and it is being exercised in real-world logistics applications. While LOXO is not a vehicle manufacturer, it drew notable attention in December 2022 with the unveiling of the LOXO Alpha, a compact, self-driving electric truck that was purpose-built for driverless last-mile deliveries. The uncrewed truck is powered by the Digital Driver, integrating a hardware stack which includes solid-state Lidar, radar, cameras, ultrasonics and redundant computers. Around that time, the Alpha was authorised to operate on Switzerland’s public roads, becoming the first autonomous Swiss vehicle to do so. Stalwart dedication to functional safety regs and bleeding-edge AI has brought about this company’s unique self-driving technologies, as Rory Jackson reports April/May 2025 | Uncrewed Systems Technology Rules of the road
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