On a Wednesday night in August, a purple and white truck left a suburban supermarket and went to the headquarters of a Toronto-based company. For the first time in history, no one was in the driver's seat.
For the past two and a half years, Loblaw has been working with a Silicon Valley-based company called Gatik to run a fleet of five self-guided trucks. In that time, the trucks have completed 150,000 trips without safety issues or accidents, picking up online grocery orders at a fulfilment centre and dropping them off for customers. The trucks had a human in the driver's seat who could take control at any time.
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All five of the trucks are driving around Toronto with an empty driver's seat, which is the first of its kind in Canada. The hope is that by next year, the trucks will run without any humans in them at all, making it more efficient and less reliant on a tight labour pool for truck drivers. For the next few months, the trucks will run with a safety driver in the passenger seat as a precautionary measure, next to the emergency stop button.
There is a truck at the headquarters of the company.
The photo is from the National Post.
The human in the passenger seat is just a courtesy to the local emergency services according to the Gatik chief executive.
He said in an interview on Tuesday that they wanted someone to talk to if the vehicle got pulled over. Gatik's staff can communicate with police if there is an accident because the trucks have speakers. There is no requirement to have a person in the truck in Ontario since the province is experimenting with self-driving vehicles. There is no one in the truck for Walmart in Arkansas.
In our industry, removing the driver is the most important thing.
Gatik has a chief executive.
Narang said that they are able to do commercial deliveries without a driver. In our industry, removing the driver is the most important thing.
Gatik charges a fee based on the number of trucks and the amount of time used. Narang wouldn't say how much the trucks will cost, but he did say that they will be 30 percent cheaper than regular trucks within five years.
The new fleet is focused on moving online orders from a fulfilment centre to stores and pickup locations, as opposed to long-haul trips transporting product from a manufacturer to a distribution warehouse. The middle mile was chosen because the routes are short and predictable so the trucks can drive the same roads over and over.
According to David Markwell, the main benefit of self-driving trucks is that they can run more frequently, without having to stop. He said that the goal was for it to be cheaper when the driver came out.
Someone is going to be in the trucks at least until next year. The trucks have the Loblaw logo and the grocery chain wants to make sure they don't get into trouble.
He said it was a concern for the public. We would like to make sure that we are comfortable.
The email address is jedmiston@postmedia.
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