Locomotion Video Transcript
DJ Hoff
… and applied and here I am so we’re actually looking for some more test drivers so if you’re in the area by Locomation.ai check us out.
Well DJ let me ask you then what does someone in your position do? You’ve been doing it for two years so driving traditional trucks prior to that. You jump behind the wheel of this new tech truck well what’s life like now?
Yeah, so I started out. We were a young company, started in 2018. I started in 2019, started out helping to build the trucks. Locomation they you know they value what your opinion is and encourage you to expand your knowledge and learn new things. Actually helped build the trucks and then started to go to the test tracks. We scheduled some time at various test tracks going to pilots across the country and basically we’re helping the engineers to develop the trucks to mimic as close as possible to what we see out on the roads. [That makes sense] Yeah it’s fun.
Annc1
Yeah that makes a lot of sense, you’re kind of this liaison between the driver and and the engineers to try and teach them what’s important and what’s not important. That type of stuff would imagine there’s a bit of it. What’s the training needs what’s the background you mentioned you had a million miles etc is that’s what’s needed you’re looking for drivers what what is the background they need and what kind of training do you have to have?
DJ Hoff
Yeah so, so we have a training program we’ve developed. Lucas one of our other drivers, he’s the operations manager, he developed a driver training program I’m starting to work on operational safety. That’s there’s luke right there at the driver’s wheel. This was on a pilot we did for out in Portland for Wilson Logistics we traveled I-84 from Portland to Boise which is for all the truck drivers out there know that’s a pretty challenging route. This was our first pilot we did for Wilson which led to them to sign on to purchase over 1100 trucks from us over a five year period. Yeah so our training program, it’s we don’t have a set definition of time. It’s ongoing, our technology is constantly changing so we constantly go through monthly training programs for different, the way the tech changes, we need to change the way we react to the robot truck so we have an ongoing training program.
Annc2
Yeah i mean well it’s you know a lot of drivers are afraid that this type of technology is going to take them out of the truck but i see two two of you guys driving around there, and i’m also was looking at what you’re putting together which is autonomous relay convoy now what is autonomous relay convoy and how does that work?
DJ Hoff
Yeah, so i’ll explain our approach a little bit here, and this is one of the main reasons why I came here. I love this idea of what we’re doing so we’re going with and because it’s a safer route we’re going with a four-step approach is the way we like to call it to full autonomy. Our first step is what we call convoy – it’s gonna be two trucks, two drivers, the second truck will be level four autonomous while the driver is resting. Our second step is drone follower which is one driver and two trucks. Third step will be we call hub to hub which will be two level four autonomous trucks and the fourth step will be dock to dock which is many years away. I think that’s the safest path to do it. So right now we’re out here testing the convoying section of it. Always have a human driver in the lead vehicle so right now this is Luke driving in the rear in autonomous mode. And that’s me as the lead driver there. So once so in the convoy mode once the follower driver is resting and his off-duty time has been reset the vehicles will be able to switch places and the lead driver will then be able to take his time off duty. So we always have a human driver in the loop making the tough decisions that I personally don’t believe that a computer is ready to make in the near future. You know there’s a the truck drivers out there know there’s a thousand things that can happen on that road at any split second and I just attended a safety conference and and I kind of like to use these examples, just roadside inspections or if the police see an a headlight out on a vehicle they want the they want the ability to pull that truck over on the side of the road and you know put it out of service. What we’re doing we can have an answer for that with our human driver and elite truck. If something is wrong and the human driver pulls over the follower just follows him to the side of the road. Fully autonomous trucks don’t have the ability to do that and we feel this is the safest path to full autonomy and we can do this sooner.
Annc1
Nice so DJ yeah thanks for explaining the autonomous relay convoy. I guess that’s ARC is what you guys call it the A-R-C. Is that a viable career path for a current driver today is this soon?
DJ Hoff
Yeah so this is this is what’s important to me and i try to keep the truck driver in the back of my mind all the time. I want this to be a premium job for truck drivers out there. So with the autonomous relay network this is going to help the drivers be able to be home more often, operate safer vehicles, and make more money. If the carriers are operating the trucks right now average 10 to 12 hours a day, a truck is moving on the highway, if what we’re doing can double that to 20 hours a day the carriers are going to see an immediate improvement to their bottom line. And that will be changed over will be passed along to the driver as well so I want it to be a premium paid position for the drivers and i think what we’re doing with the digital transportation system too which is a complete product of load planning, dispatching, route optimization to put the convoy trucks to work an emotion most efficient way. So we’ll come in and analyze the carrier’s load capacity to see where improvements can be made in their lanes and relay loads between points to get drivers back home. Which is one of the biggest complaints about truck drivers right? I mean, how home, time, money, and yeah if we can improve that I think we can make truck driving a better job, and yeah, and get more young people right and get more young people interested in this career.
Annc2
Sure sure sure thing DJ. Hey J before we let you go and of course yeah we got to attract younger people to this field you know average age is like 55. I read your blog as well which you can check out on Locomation but yeah right before we let you go it’s you’ve been a truck driver you’re still a truck driver it’s truck driver appreciation week any message to the other drivers out there?
DJ Hoff
Yeah, don’t be afraid of autonomous trucks. This is many years away from reality. What we’re, doing what Locomation is doing, we’re the only autonomous company that’s still talking about drivers out there. So keep your driver’s record sick clean and be safe out there. [Love it] and and if you see me on the road wave.
Annc2
Wave, All right well if i give you this, you better beep the horn too. [That’s it yep all right]
Annc1
Can they put that in the autonomous truck so that they just beat the horn if you go like this if they notice somebody doing that you know what i got some engine?
DJ Hoff
I got some engineers back here we can work on it nice dude we need horn tones instead of ringtones thank you so much thanks for joining us today dj drive safe out there brother thank you guys
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