SafeAI has announced a collaboration with Siemens to create an autonomous, zero emission heavy vehicle fleet for Obayashi Corporation.
SafeAI and Siemens will work with Obayashi Corporation, a Japan-based construction company, to create smarter, safer, more sustainable and productive construction sites.
SafeAI and Obayashi originally announced their partnership in October 2020, beginning with a pilot site in Cupertino, California. Together, the two companies set out to address common pain points across construction—including unsafe working conditions, labor shortages, and rampant inefficiencies—with autonomous solutions. Since then, they have successfully tested and deployed an articulated autonomous dump truck to complete over 580 load-haul-dump cycles.
SafeAI and Siemens signed an agreement in May 2021 to jointly work on retrofitting off-road heavy vehicles for autonomy, zero emission, and connected applications, due to the increasing convergence of these three megatrends in vehicles. SafeAI brings its scalable AI-powered retrofit autonomy to the collaboration, while Siemens provides its hardware and software capabilities in zero emission powertrains, and the necessary infrastructure to operate these vehicles.
Earlier this year, a fleet of 300 construction trucks—ranging from 45 to 65 tons and operated by Obayashi Corporation—was identified to be retrofitted for autonomy and zero emission. In May 2022, the companies began retrofitting the first 45-ton vehicle, which is expected to be ready by the end of 2022. The collaboration will continue scaling across the entire fleet over a three-year period.
“At SafeAI, we’ve always been committed to making heavy industry safer and more productive. Now, in partnership with Siemens, we can add ‘more sustainable’ to that list,” said Bibhrajit Halder, founder and CEO of SafeAI. “Siemens has already built a track record of advancing on-road electrification. Now, together, we can deliver these capabilities, at scale, to off-road industries. With this partnership, our present and future customers can experience the powerful, synergistic benefits of autonomy and electrification.”
Unlike passenger cars, full electrification of heavy vehicles is still at a nascent stage. However, with improving maturity of technology, total cost of ownership, government incentives, and regulations, there will be over four million zero emission heavy vehicles deployed by 2030. Beyond the zero emission benefit, electric vehicles also offer improved performance, negligible maintenance costs and longer uptime and life, improving productivity and reliability while lowering costs. For this project, it is estimated that the total cost of ownership for the retrofitted electric vehicle will be 15 to 30 percent less than that of the original internal combustion engine vehicle.
“Heavy vehicle retrofit for autonomy and zero emission is an innovative yet cost-effective solution that will fast track adoption of sustainable technologies for heavy vehicles. Not to forget, retrofit is a form of reuse or recycle and hence in line with circular economy principles to better meet net zero goals. Combined with creative financing models and rigorous focus on safety, there could be as many retrofitted zero emission heavy vehicles as newly built zero emission heavy vehicles by 2030,” said Zubin Sarkar, head of strategy, business development and marketing at Siemens Commercial Vehicles. “There’s a tremendous opportunity ahead for companies across industries like construction, mining, harbor, and agriculture to reduce their carbon footprint, all while improving operations and lowering costs. In partnership with pioneers like SafeAI and Obayashi Corporation, we can imagine a more sustainable future for these industries.”
Source: SafeAI
