What Happens to Self-Driving Trucks in a Critical System Failure?

Kodiak Robotics, Inc. just became the first company to demonstrate a “fallback” system that can autonomously pull a self-driving truck over to the side of the road in the event of a truck or system failure.

According to the company, the self-driving system evaluates the performance of more than 1,000 safety-critical processes and components ten times every second in both the self-driving stack and the underlying truck platform. If critical components fall outside the acceptable performance parameters, the Kodiak Driver automatically executes a fallback plan, safely pulling the truck over to the side of the road.

Kodiak’s ACE safety computer executes a fallback without the Kodiak Driver’s main computer input. Should the ACEs lose connection with the Kodiak Driver’s main computer for any reason, from a communications failure to a loose cable, the system will automatically execute a fallback. The ACE is a universal interface to all truck platforms. For a video demonstrating Kodiak’s fallback system in action, click HERE.