You're one today, as January 22nd, 2019. This is the transportation. Finance. And policy committee. Just. A couple of quick announcements before we get started, I. Just. Want everybody in the in the room to know that we are up against a hard deadline because, we have to be on the floor at noon so. I will have to adjourn at 10, minutes to 12:00 just to get members an, opportunity to get over to the floor. And. Today. We we, are going to have an informational, hearing, on. Essentially. Automated, trucking, and and I this is something that I've been, looking forward to. To. Learning, more about, the. Only other thing that I'm going to. Indicate. Is that if any members. Have. A. Desire. To have a future. Informational. Hearing. Particularly. In the area of transit. I'd be I'd be very, interested to know what the. Future holds in the area of transit, with. That we, are going to go, to our. Testifiers. I've. Got we're, going to try and hold some. Time at the end of the hearing so that members would have an opportunity to ask questions. But. With that I think what we're going to do is just go right through the testimony, and. See. What these folks have to have. To say, so. With that, who. Is going to lead up mr. house Laden. Good. Morning mr. house Laden welcome. To the committee state, your full name for the, committee. Who you represent and proceed with your testimony, please yes. Good morning Thank You mr. chairman members of the committee my name is John house Laden I'm president of the Minnesota trucking. Association and, we're, here today to help, facilitate this, informational. Hearing on automated. Trucking. And, we're very excited the. Trucking industry is big to Minnesota and we've, put together I, think a very good lineup to help you understand, some of the opportunities, we have before us just. Two statistics, from a trucking perspective. 68%. Of Minnesota communities, rely, exclusively on, truck transportation for everything, that goes in and, so what we do with these trucks and the drivers that will be in them is going to be critical to continue, to serve communities, and secondly. That 78%, of all manufactured. Goods travel on truck in Minnesota so, it is the dominant mode it will remain the dominant mode, and again, what we can do to advance safety, technology, in the driver's roles is going to be very critical to do that well our, lineup today includes, Brent boys president, owner of Calhoun Truck Lines who chaired our automated vehicles task force Gregg. Treinen from Daimler, Trucks North, America, Stephen. Boyd from peloton, and Carter. Foes from, Cummins. So with that I'll turn it over to mr. Boyce thanks. John, welcome. Mr., Boyce if you would state your full name please for, the record indicate. Who. You were here representing, and proceed with your testimony, great Thank, You mr. chairman members of the committee my name is Brent Boyce I'm owner of Calhoun Truck Lines we are an intermodal trucking, provider, based in Eden Prairie Minnesota in. Addition, I'm. Also chairman, at the automated, vehicle task force of the Minnesota trucking association. To. Begin I think, it's important to stress at the outset that there is and will. Be in the future a high, demand for professional. Truck drivers, we. Believe the professional, truck driver will, remain in the cap but. The role will evolve as automated, technology, assists with certain driving tasks. In. Some situations, the professional, truck driver the, future may operate more like an airline pilot. Handling. City driving and using automation, to assist in the middle of the run I. Believe. The driver assist technology, will generate numerous, benefits in the areas of safety environment. Productivity. Efficiency. And. Driver, health and wellness, I'm. Also excited, about, how emerging, driver assist, technology, holds promise to attract new, digitally. Savvy people to the truck driving profession. We. Believe the primary, role the driver assist, technology. Should be to enhance public safety, by, reducing human error and motor. Vehicle crashes. Trucking. Fleets design trucking, fleets desire, to be actively, involved in generating in evaluating. Driver, assist, technology, data to. Demonstrate improvements. In safety, the. Minnesota trucking association supports, policies. That, promote Minnesota, is a testing, ground for automated. And connected, driver assist, technologies. The. Trucking industry relies. On an interstate highway system that.
Facilitates Free. Flow of goods between states, as, driver. Assist. Technology, is developed, tested. And commercialized. It. Is critical, that federal, state, and local laws do, not create disparities. That limit Commerce and obstruct. The successful, adoption of these potentially, safety, and productivity. Boosting, technologies. We. Feel strongly that, the regulation, of performance, and technical, specifications of. Automated. And connected. Driver assist, technology. Should, be solely the responsibility of. The federal government. States, should maintain their, existing responsibilities. That do not interfere with the flow of Interstate Commerce. The. Minnesota Trucking Association. Encourages, States to participate in, creating an adopting, uniform, state laws. Minnesota. Should take steps towards, removing, existing barriers that, may stifle innovation and, deployment, of advanced, technologies. An. Example. Would be vehicle, following distance as it relates to truck platooning, or, more. Clearly defining, what constitutes an automated vehicle. At. The same time state, laws and regulations, should neither require, nor. Limit differing, levels of automation. I'm. Personally excited to, see how drivers this technology, can enhance the, role of the professional truck driver and, make, our roadways safer. Thank. You. Thank. You for your testimony, I, believe, next up is mr. Tynan. Pronouncing. That correctly yes. Yes, my name is Gregory treinen treinen, okay I indicate. Who you represent mr., trainin and please, proceed great. Uh so again my name is Gregory trainin I am with, Miller Trucks North America, we. Are a manufacturer. Of medium, heavy duty vehicles. Based in Portland, Oregon. I'm, here today I'm representing. I'm on their advanced, technology team. And honored. To be invited to speak to you here today to discuss our efforts in developing. Automated. Driving for commercial, vehicles what, the future of that technology, may bring and what are approaches and not only developing, the technology, that will make it happen but, the partnerships, that will with. Key stakeholders, that will be required to make that a reality. We. At Daimler Trucks have a demonstrated, history of delivering new vehicle, technologies, at the right time not, too early not too late but at the right time when the technology is mature enough for a broader application, and we've proven this time and again with new innovations, including. Safety systems, and automated, in vehicle, automation. In. 2015, we drove the automated, Freightliner inspiration. Truck over the hoover dam to demonstrate, the future introducing. Our vision, of this technology to the US trucking, industry, the. Launch of the inspiration, truck garnered, worldwide media attention in 2015, as the first licensed, automated, commercial vehicle to operate on US Open, highways in.
Nevada The. Common misperception, was that that inspiration truck, was a driverless, truck which it was not, inspiration. Incorporated, level 2 automated. Features, and required a drivers presence, to control the vehicle utilized. Radar and camera systems that are part, of a collision, mitigation and, lane departure warning systems. Plus. The addition of an automated steering, gear and advancements, in the software algorithms, that control the braking acceleration. In the steering of the vehicle the. Chief benefit realized with the program were several, customer focused technology, gains that. Were immediately greenlit, for commercialization. A number. Of the inspiration, truck breakthroughs, our key building blocks that are part of the new Detroit assurance, 5.0, suite, of safety, systems that were announced a couple weeks ago and we'll be going into series production later, this year. So. Four years ago those, technologies, that were featured on the inspiration, truck were only a concept, and now they are becoming a reality. So two weeks ago at the Consumer, Electronics, Show in Las Vegas we introduced the first SAE, level, 2 automated, truck in series production in North America, with the latest enhancements. To the Freightliner new Cascadia, the. New Cascadia delivers level 2 driving capabilities, with the Detroit assurance 5.0, suite of camera and radar based, safety. Systems this, new proprietary, system, marks. A key mile milestone, Freightliner a relentless pursuit, of industry-leading. Overall, safety and driver experience. Previous. Iterations, of Detroit assurance over the past few, years include, adaptive cruise. Control automated. It automated. Acceleration. And deceleration of. The truck level. To automation, means, the truck is capable, of both longitudinal so, again, acceleration. And deceleration and, lateral. Which, means, steering, control, the. Assurance 5.0, delivers. On both of those capabilities the. Lateral steering controls made available by, assurances. Lane keep assist feature, and exist, the existing forward, control experience, with adaptive cruise control get. Us to level 2 automated, driving, this. Automated, driving technology is considered an advanced, driver assistance system. Which requires the driver to, stay engaged by keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel these. Features are used to augment the driving experience and making it safer for the driver and the public. See. If the normal video clip works or not. It's. Not that's. Okay um. So. Having a quick look at the prior, slide. What. Was supposed to be shown here was the. Surance 5.0. Adaptive. Cruise control feature, which automatically, adjusts the trucks cruising. Speed to maintain a safe following distance from. Other vehicles in its path down to zero miles per hour in. Stop-and-go traffic if, the vehicle front in front stops the truck will also come to a stop and hold in media indefinitely, in. The vehicle if the vehicle ahead moves under two seconds the truck will resume moving at a safe following distance. Adaptive. Cruise control to zero miles per hour and through safety efficiency, and driver comfort by automatically, decelerating. And accelerating. To, maintain a safe following distance, this. Technology, is especially important, for maintaining a comfortable, driving experience, in congested, traffic situations. Or, repeated, braking, accelerating. And resetting, of traditional, cruise control can lead to driver fatigue. So. Taking a look at our lane keep assist feature, that in combination with adaptive, cruise control gets, us to level two, so. When a driver switches, on adaptive, cruise the system automatically, engages, the lane keep assist feature. This. Always, keeps the truck in its lane by means of steering Corrections, carried out by the system so.
When Adaptive cruise control is enabled lane keep assist supports. The driver by, using micro steering movements to keep the new Cascadia, centered and it's detected, Lane the. Driver is still required, to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and, if the driver does remove their hands visual, and audio warnings, will occur after 30 and 60 seconds. So. With this assurance 5.0, suite of safety system it's not just about the features that get us to level 2 automation, it really is about the suite of safety. Systems and features that are designed to reduce accidents, and save. Lives. For. Example assurance also includes an active brake assist feature which, is always on automatically. Tracking the distance from. The front of the truck to other vehicles in its path using bumper. Mounted radar. With. With 5.0, of the camera and radar signals are now fused. Offering. Improved object, recognition so. Which means fewer false positives, and more, and more accurate capture. Of what's in front of the vehicle and higher, possible. Approaching, speeds. So. With the radar working together with the camera active, brake assist now offers, not only full emergency braking on stationary, objects but also moving pedestrians. Which. Is an industry-first. So. We have a couple of other features involved, in here but given, our time constraints all wanted. To also hit on the side guard Assist which detects, objects, including. Pedestrians and cyclists. In the passenger side blind spot for the tractor and the full length of the tractor which, is another industry first delivering, an audible and visual, warning, to the driver so taking. In, combination, with these automated, driving features we have a full suite of safety. Systems that are designed. To improve the, safety, of the driver and the driving public. So. Our pursuit of safer roads doesn't, stop there. Two. Weeks ago in Las Vegas during the CES, show Martin, Dom our HEPA head of Daimler trucks and buses announced Daimler invest, 500, million euros are about five hundred and seventy million dollars, over, the next few years to bring highly automated, vehicles. To the road within. The decade that, means SAE, level, four after. Launching level two automation, we are developing level, 4 capabilities, as the next step in delivering. Highly automated vehicles. We, continue, to develop technologies, across the vehicle spectrum, automated vehicle spectrum, that, make roads safer and help customers, boost. Productivity. We. Know a majority of accidents are still due to human error in level four systems enhance, safety in traffic, thanks, to a redundancy, of systems, and multitude. Of sensors and systems that never get tired or lose attention. Level. Four highly automated trucks, also have the potential to improve efficiency and productivity among. Other things through, higher utilization, of vehicles. Adoption. Of level 4 technology, in trucking could help address the ever-growing driver shortage which according to the ATA is, expected, to grow by 125,000. In the next six years automated. Driving will supplement the driver shortage and drive, driver, job profiles will change with the potential, for more attractive, jobs, potential. For more time at home. But the, message is that drivers, will still be in high demand this. Technology, will help society, cope with the ever-growing volume afraid thereby. Enabling. Further, economic, growth and prosperity. Global. Road freight. Volume is expected to more than double between, 2015, and 2050, and we have to master this growth in a smart way with, highly automated trucks, playing a major role. Frankly. We have a responsibility, to investigate. And test this technology, given the the, need to improve, safety and to address the, driver shortage and the increase in freight volume, the.
Focus Is not just on not not on our urban areas for, HOT level for automation, but on highways, given. Light wide lanes in one-way traffic with no cyclists. No pedestrians, so that's our initial focus for level 4 and. From a global perspective being, that we're a global, company, our focus is on the u.s. do. Do an excellent, infrastructure, here homogeneous. Traffic flow very. Similar speed limits for cars and trucks and learn at large, distances. So. It's our Arctic and our aspiration. To bring this technology to the road in, the next decade so. There, are however key considerations, in developing. A truck with highly automated driving capabilities. The first in order to realize. Highly. Automated driving, redundancy. And safety critical systems, such as braking and searing is absolutely, necessary. Second. We believe you need a full suite of sensor, sensors. Cameras, radars, lidar at a performance never seen before this. Technology will require massive computing, power onboard for the new world of sensor fusion perception. Localization. And more. But. It's more than just the technology, it's. About creating it's an one thing to create demos, but another to. Bring highly automated vehicles. Into series production and deliver to customers we, have to consider the impacts to you our customers. The public and drivers, for. All, the aim needs to be getting from point A to point B and this safe and efficient and as reliable. As possible, DT. Neighs highest. Priorities safety that is benchmark, for the reduction of crashes. Fatalities. And injuries and, that is the number one reason we are developing highly automated vehicle. Technologies, DT, na believes by that, by researching, these technologies, this will accelerate the evolution of technologies, that will save lives. Additionally. Level four technology, must also work seamlessly within our customers operations. And I must help them run businesses, more of their business, more safely, and more efficiently. And. We also need to essentially. You know that the vehicle needs to encounter, or, no. Be. Set up to encounter, and and make decisions in regards, to various different situations, it encounters, through. The road and various, weather conditions construction. Sites and more and. The technology, needs to be, reliable. 24/7. Phillipe cannot afford lengthy, downtime, due to this technology nor, the cost of putting lidar sensors on a meet and schedule like an oil filter those. Components, need to be reluctant reliable. Reliably. Perform for the next decade. For, more than five hundred thousand miles so, our technology needs, to be a hundred percent Road, proof.
Testing. And validation is. It. Will dry out help us draw upon our proven, expertise. In long history of commercializing safe, reliable, and fully integrated, commercial. Vehicles it's one thing to talk about safety and validation, and respect to developing. Highly automated vehicles, but it's quite another, tap. Demonstrated, proof points and the investment. In facilities, to lend credibility to that talk. So. As I mentioned in my opening slide Daimler Trucks North America, takes pride in introducing, vehicle technologies, not too early but at the right time and this involves, thorough validation, processes, before we test on public roads our, internal product validation engine engineering, team utilizes our test track in Madras Oregon to, ensure new technologies, will work safely and will, hold up to the rigors of hunt running hundreds of thousands of miles on North America's highways. So. The validation, process for level for automation includes, extensive testing at that track and our, through that testing, our stated goal is to place our first level four test truck on, roads by, the end of this year in 2019. And. Through all this process we, have we announced in this past June, the. Opening, of our automated, truck research and development, center in Portland, this. R&D center will be a hub for researching. Testing, and validating the technology, that has the potential to save lives and make trucking more efficient, the. Rhian R&D center will furthermore be established, as a center for co-creation, where customers, suppliers and business, partners can, provide input ensuring, the technology, is calibrated, for real-life. Applications. So. In terms of partnership, with key, stakeholders, level 4 technology, cannot be developed in a vacuum it will require partnership, with these key stakeholders, so, the technology, can be tested and eventually deployed safely, in a way that meets the needs. Of all involved we. Understand the sensitivity, to the market with the role of the driver and we are founding members of the partnership for transportation. And innovation, opportunities. Whose Charter is to understand, the impact of new technology, on jobs in, the transportation, industry the.
PTI O is a recently formed group comprised of OMS and suppliers that are building, and. Testing on highly automated vehicles. As. Mentioned in the previous slide we will work closely with our customers through co-creation, process, to. Ensure highly automated vehicle, technology, he runs safely and efficiently within, their operations, delivering, value to them as, place at class 8 market leaders we have established close partnerships. With. Our key customers and have involved them in the development processes, to, ensure products, fit their needs our. Electric vehicle co-creation, process that we're undergoing right now is a great example of this and we will initiate, something, similar with all highly automated vehicles, as well. DTA. Is utilizing, testing, protocols to ensure the highest levels. Of safety and for the driver and for the driving public and this effort includes actively, interfacing, and closely working with both federal and state governments. To formal formulate safe safety, testing, processes, for these vehicles. As. Technology, leader and safety and efficiency DTA considers, it essential, that it shares with, regulators, a deep understanding of. Our technology, such. Collaboration, we'll set up long-term foundation for, creating regulation, and policy that is beneficial for everyone. We. Are appreciative of the willingness of these government, leaders, and regulatory agencies to work with us and for, their support as we share the same mission of reducing crashes, and saving lives and we continue to look, for we look forward to continuing to work together as we strive for this shared vision. So. To sum up we understand, you. Know that the impact on jobs and drivers in particular is a key consideration and, we believe that the role of humans is essential, even for high levels of automation as they're critical, to ensuring the safe operation, of these systems. While. The role could drivers, role could change DT expects the driver operator. To remain critical piece, of the automation, system, a step-by-step transition, to automated vehicles.
Develops. Testing. And validation are in our DNA at Daimler Trucks and we have a demonstrated, history of delivering technology at the right time and we have made investment. The investment in our product validation engineering. Team and testing facilities, to make sure we, are delivering technology that, is safe and, our customers can utilize to, create value for their businesses, public. Acceptance, and confidence. From our customers is also key that. Is why our development, process will. Involve key stakeholders, as we move forward with co-creation. And through, our partnerships with federal and state regulators we need a regulatory, framework established, to set up a long-term foundation, for. Creating policy, that is beneficial, for all stakeholders. And. With that I will conclude my remarks thank. You. Thank. You mr. chairman, next, we have up mr.. Boyd, if you would identify yourself. For the record indicate. Who you are here representing, and proceed, with your testimony, please, Thank. You mr. chairman and members of the committee my name is Stephen Boyd I'm co-founder. And vice president of External Affairs at, Palatine technology, and, we're a company if it's located in Mountain, View California but. As but that has partnerships around the country, including. Here in the Midwest. Appreciate. The opportunity to speak to the committee today and to have a discussion after. Our remarks about these technologies. And. I'll, go ahead and. Begin. Speaking a little bit about this we had, pellets on technology, we're, working with driver, assistive solutions so our focus, much. In in line with the comments, that were made here before is very much on empowering drivers, and finding new solutions that improve safety, and efficiency. Working, with the drivers our. Solution, uses connectivity, to, allow pairs, of trucks to work together but, we start by making the individual, truck safer at all times we require best-in-class, active, safety on, each, truck making, that truck safer everywhere it goes and, then we use connectivity, to, link those safer trucks together just pairs of trucks the, drivers remain fully engaged at all times in the driving task steering. At all time so it's level one and not. Highly automated and, as, you've heard from the other speakers we think that these kind of technologies are what are entering the market market over the coming, period of time highly. Automated solutions. That don't involve drivers, are, far. Out and, we. Really see here as an ongoing role for drivers in general and in, our solutions very much the drivers at the heart of the system. So. You've. Already heard about the massive scale of course that the trucking industry represents. In here in Minnesota John noted, just how significant, trucking is in the. US there's, major pain points that we try to address with truck platooning, including. The over, 100 billion dollars in annual fuel cost, that. The trucking faces which is still over 30%, of their operating, costs as fuel in, addition, another. Major pain point crash cost over 90 billion a year in the, u.s. crashes, just. Facing the industry and, in. General these are the kind of problems that the, industry struggles because typical. Fleets have less than a 3% profit margin so it's difficult for them to make major investments, and and and, spend any more on these already expensive trucks and that's, what we try to tackle that problem by. Using efficiency. Benefits, from, our system to help them get better safety on each truck. The. Platooning, systems that we're working on are built on decades of previous R&D, by. Many companies globally, in a number of research institutions, in the US Europe and elsewhere this. Is just a sampling in this map that shows some of the activity, the glove related. To platooning. Many. Brands involved, here in the US and globally and peloton's, partnered with a number of them with. A large investor, base of. Strategics, including, over. A. Number of major, Fortune. Global 500 companies, including 10. Fortune. Global 500 companies, notably, UPS Volvo, Intel, BP. And others. As. I said before our focus is to improve the individual, safety of each truck at all times using. State-of-the-art. Collision avoidance lane departure warning and disc, brakes and the tractor, that. Makes that truck with that spec the, safest truck on the road. We. Talked about the importance of we all agree on the importance of improving truck safety and these, collision avoidance systems are now proven by multiple, studies to dramatically, reduce crashes even. The earlier versions of these systems the. Newer versions, of these systems are, even more effective, fully. Braking a truck to a stop if there's an obstacle.
Full. Of full collision avoidance. One. Unfortunate, thing is that whereas, there's been some efforts to try to mandate these safety systems and require them to be on trucks. To improve safety in Europe, actually in November, 2015. Collision. Avoidance and lane departure warning was mandated, for trucks they've. Seen him dramatic. Reduction in crashes and, savings. - for the industry their improvements. The highway safety in Europe now, the u.s. no mandate has proceeded however solutions. Like truck platooning can accelerate faster, than the market bringing. These safety systems onto trucks, so. Our system takes that approach we require these best-in-class, systems, and that's, the heart of our platoon pro system is helping. Drivers and proving teamwork improving, safety and efficiency. Tied, to that active safety so, our approach is about that, connected, driver teamwork cooperative. Between. Those two drivers and we're linking the active safety systems between these trucks essentially, what, this is is cooperative. Adaptive, cruise control the. Driver experience. For the driver is akin to you and your car driving with adaptive, cruise where you've got radar looking ahead and, you've, got connectivity, though between the trucks the real power here is that, the v2v the, vehicle of vehicle communication allows. Instantaneous. Communication. Between those two, thus, the front truck whence. It detects something head and begins, to slow the follow, truck immediately, does the same, so today the trucks are all stacked up together in the roads you see them all the time often driving too close without. Safety systems without, driving a driver communication, without, linked safety we're, trying to address that reality, the roads today they're, not perfect roads this, can help improve the orderliness of the trucks on the roads today the, focus of our safety and of, our approach is as. I said on driver assist and thus. The levels, zero, to two we're. At level one with, the drivers steering, at all times, and. Let's. See if the video can play here I think. We found that the videos weren't really playing is that right. It's. Not, so. Skipping ahead this. Sort of summarizes, our. Overall. Framework, here level one, automation. Only, pairs of trucks were, partnered with major OEMs and delivering, jointly, validated, safety validated, solutions, our. System improves driver teamwork, with, a direct radio, connection between them trucks along, with a video connection, so that the driver in the follow truck has, a window, through. That truck ahead essentially. A video view of the view of the driver ahead and. You see this in the videos will provide. The videos, to the committee so you can review these videos and understand, more, about the. Reality. Of the system as you can see it in operation we. Also limit operation, of these systems. To multi, lane divided, limited. Access highways only. Appropriate, roadways. Can, use the system we, do that using geofencing. So. That the driver is aren't able to activate platooning, and less, within an appropriate type, of roadway. This. Is a view of that shared video, perspective. The, follow driver has a view, of the road ahead the. Follow distance for these trucks is on, the order of 50. To 80 feet when, we platoon them that, still leaves room for vehicles, to cut in the system also automatically, detects vehicles if they cut in and mix pace so. That adheres. With of course normal operations in the road that connectivity, the. Drivers were then able to reconnect and platoon. Reform. The platoon after a cut it occurs this. Image, here shows more of that this is also in the video that you'll be able to view it another time.
So. We again of geo-fenced and we, prevent. Use of the system other, than an appropriate, roadways so multi Lane dividing limited access highways we. Also monitor. Weather and traffic and geofence, out actively, for that. The. Cloud-based system, our work operation centers monitoring the safety of, the trucks and is matching them up so, that within the same fleet a pair, of trucks is able to link up and a, key part of that is we always put the heavier longer. Stopping distance truck in front so. Intelligent ordering of the trucks is very important as well the. Data from our system is helpful not just to the fleets and the drivers but, also to highway operators, so that these, trucks are out there they're, highly censored they're gathering information about the road and, weather conditions and this can be provided back to highway operators, to improve the awareness about the road and, to help other other motorists. Vehicle. Divo communication, we use. The 5.9, gigahertz DSRC. Dedicated. Short range communications. Spectrum. To, allow for this feat. Of the connection, between the trucks it's, been set aside by SCC. In a partnership with d-o-t from, for. Many years now in place and now the SRC systems systems are finally entering the market at, peloton, were one of the players bringing this into trucking so. This slide, right here represents, how we get that closer following distance it's because we're eliminating, perception. And reaction time, as, well as brake lag you. Could take that following, distance down from perhaps. 200 300 feet for trucks that's practically, with the distances they may be at sometimes, they're closer in Minnesota. You have a rule that requires 500 feet, following, distance however, that may not be heavily enforced typical. Distances are probably more in the order of 200 feet we, bring that down to between 50 and 80 feet, to. Allow better. Drafting, and aerodynamic, efficiency as well as that connected safety. There's. Three videos in this presentation, and hopefully you'll be able to view them the one I was going to show there would, show emergency. Braking how the trucks are able to brake extremely. Hard and maintain. A gap throughout, that process. So. Teamwork and our drivers are key to what we're doing our drivers not only help us with our testing, and validation work but of course they're part of also making. Sure that the design is driver centric, that it worked well for drivers, they've been a key part of our operation, and if they're at the heart of our company, this. Video that you'll be able to view later shows the, view from the follow drivers perspective, the, way the drivers work together the. Fact that the follow driver almost quarterbacks, the situation, working with the front driver it's, not like the driver in the back is detaching. And has a lighter. Workload they, continue to work together and it's there's a lot of teamwork and you can see how they make lane changes, and how they work together navigating.
The Road improving. Upon. The status, quo out there where trucks are not communicating, with each other are not having connected an active safety on this truck and, don't, have these tools so. Our. Approach as I mentioned before is to jointly, integrate. And validate, safety, validate with the major players we're. Working with a number of these OEMs, PACCAR notably. And others and our, approach is to use proven. Methodologies. For automotive, safety safety. Functional, validation functional. Safety validation, to deploy these systems on the roads. Robust. Process, of track and then road testing. Working. With our partners so. The benefits, independently, validated, fuel economy benefits of Co tuning are coming, in on the order of 10 percent for a follow truck about 5 percent for a front truck this. Unlocks a lot of great value that then helps, those fleets then bring on these better safety systems, and you. Get an ROI for a typical fleet typical, truck in under one year under one year payback period, for. Typical trucks that are operating at about a seventy-five, two hundred thousand miles a year. Jumping. Ahead a little bit here we have solid demand from a number of top fleets. Including. These a, number, that operate here in this region and. Our. Approach to deployment is same fleet so, platooning. Will be used by the same fleet within its own operation, at a later phase, some. Fleets may choose to cross fleet Platoon put in with other fleets that they choose to work with, that's a later stage so for now it's same fleet and another, important part of this, is that we're only deploying this on a new truck so, you're not gonna see old trucks retrofitted, with this only, recent, very recent model trucks might be up fit able retrofitted. But, typically it's going to be new trucks which, is part of part, and parcel to having that active, better active. Safety in each truck so we're not going to see old trucks out there that would be using, this the. Main use case is major. Is same fleet dedicated. Routes hub. To hub routes. Within. The same fleet fleet, drivers operating these systems they'll be later solutions. Variants. On this that can work with other types of fleet operations, but this is the initial, use case that we expect so, that's the operating environment there this map shows the US Highway interstate system, it's. Interested highway system and this is the major multi Lane divided limited access highways in, the, US that would be major, operational. Areas for truck, platooning, we, geofence. Out though areas where the topography, is not suitable or other conditions are not suitable we also geo fits out construction zones, and other such things. Federally. Because. Truck platooning is driver assistant, and because. It, the, cart at the heart of it is a following distance matter it's a state matter state, regulated matter no federal barriers in fact the, federal government in their guidance 3.0. Recent. Policy guidance related, to connecting, automated, vehicles they, encourage, states to remove barriers for truck material. This. Is sort of the landscape of the. Regulations, across the u.s. the, states, in gray here. Represent. Those where the. Following distance rules are reasonable and prudent discretionary. Standard in, those states, some. Of some states have determined that they can allow for truckful tuning with no change to law no. Change to law at all simply, administrative, allowance. In, the orange you'll see states then that are to, have a numeric. Minimum following distance Minnesota, is one of those with a 500-foot rule in those states we expect legislation, is needed, so. Far to date we have now, 18, states that allow full commercial deployment of truck blue tunic and, a growing, number of them are looking, at this further we expect her in 2019, a number of other states will, move to make full, deployment allowance, and we're. Looking forward to further discussions here in Minnesota about, possible.
Here Working, with our partners. And. And. As part of our work we've also done. A number of demonstrations in a number of areas Michigan. Florida. Where, we've worked with the states to identify, with, them and have their Highway Patrol and do, a ride-along with our systems understand more, of these that some, studies have come out of these is. This work including a study out of Florida showed, no no, new infrastructure, is required and. No. New no no communications, communications infrastructure, is required either for, this which is very important, that for vehicle of vehicle communication, all systems are onboard the trucks you don't need to have any, other kind of surrounding. Infrastructure. Out. Look ahead for for peloton and for truck with tuning here in the u.s. we're. Bringing systems already into, use, in Texas, we have fleets. That have already begun running Freight in Texas and we're working with a number of other states around there to expand that over the coming year, or two in. The Europe all six, OMS, have. Developed, platooning systems and a number of them have begun, fleet programs, with them including and. The end trucks and scania. There's. A number of other programs and in Asia and. Australia that are kicking off pellets. On has a project that's ending, up in Australia as well and, so, robust activity continues, over the coming period we. Expect a main activity will be out, of Texas, in the southwest initially, but as other states come online to allow truck platooning, we expect that fleets and OEMs can make plans to bring, these things into operation, in other regions. Some. Of this may be as best covered in this in subsequent discussions, but this is just an, example of the following distance la that's relevant here in Minnesota. With. This 500 foot numeric minimum distance, and this. Is an example of a sort, of basic. Approach, to adjustment. To the. Vehicle, code that would be akin, to what other states have done we. Recognize that there's some draft legislation that's, been looked at in the past that, came out of the Kinect an automated vehicle task force last, year, and that, there may be some further discussions, of this nature and we look forward to working with the tracking Association. Our. Partners here in this region and. This body and. Then. The executive. Branch here to, look forward ahead, to what may be possible regarding truck platooning here in Minnesota so, thank you very much I appreciate your time.
Thank. You very much mr. Boyd I just, wanted to tease you a little bit coming out of California I suppose you were a little shocked when you got here. No. I do it I grew up in Pennsylvania and. Michigan. So I I can handle the weather but thank you sir thank you very much next, we have mr.. Foss if. You would state your full name please indicate. Who you are representing, and proceed. With your testimony. My, name's Carter FOSE here. With cummins the, electrified, power business unit, I'm, going to talk to you today about. Our. Vision for electrification. Into. The trucking market. Okay. So, a quick background accumbens and specifically, the electrified power of business unit Cummins. Has been focusing. On hybrid, and electrified, developments. For over a decade now but. Just in, 2017. It, was kind of officially, an, electrification, business. Unit that was launched, later. That year in the summer we, announced. A partnership with Gillig, to. Deploy. And develop transit. Busing. System for hybrid and electric technologies. Later. That year in August 2017 we, unveiled the demonstration, vehicle which we called AOS which, is a heavy duty semi, fully. Electric vehicle, again just a demonstration of our technologies. In. The electrified, space, in. October 2017. We. Made the first acquisition of brand MO which is a battery, module companies, focusing, on lithium-ion, technology that. Was out of talent Oregon on the west coast. Primarily. Focused on building, a you know electric motorcycles, power sports vehicle equipment and. Being. Able to stream those into high voltage battery. Module packs as. Well they had a, wonderful. Range of software, and hardware components. To control the safety and ultimate, performance of these vehicles. Moving. Into 2018, the, second acquisition was Johnson Matthey battery systems out of the UK they. Focused on high voltage systems. In large pack again. Let the mi on battery module development in, the high voltage space for. The large and heavy duty on and off highway trucking market. And. Then officially in 2018, we announced ourselves as, the electrified. Power business unit to give. Our space with incumbents, to have the the dynamic, capability, to use resources as needed for. Our developments, and. Then the third and final acquisition. That Cummins made was efficient. Drive trains incorporated, to company out of California, they, are a system integrator of electrification, so, they can take a full se class three to class eight. Large vehicle and, fully electrified so not just put batteries in it but, full controls technology. Electrify. Steering, cooling braking, all the other subsystem, components that are required to to, do this type of integration. So. As you can see from the map we have kind of a global footprint from electrified, powered business unit ourselves. We. Have of you. Know just over 300 some employees, within, EPB you you. Know almost two-thirds of those are purely, engineers, focused, on our development, in technology right now hundreds.
Of Patents in, this space and. We have almost nine million miles on our technology, and vehicles. So. We see four keys to adoption, technology. Of course being. A big one lithium-ion, chemistry, cell. Technology, whether, it's power electronics, that. Help control that the. Software is. Really important, it's. Making any system, viable. For what we had today, regulations. Of course laws. Regional. Focus. As well as subsidies, to to help companies. Integrate. These technologies whether it's today or tomorrow. Infrastructure. Readiness of course is another big piece I think, of charging, how. You charge these vehicles whether. It's vehicle to grid vehicle, vehicle, come, and specifically, will not play a direct. Role in. Outfitting. Charging, systems but we're going to enable the enablers, per se with how. We will be partnering with industry. Leaders doing that type of infrastructure, work and. Then of course the total cost of ownership, at, the end of the day someone has to buy these products, and. Whether. Or not the duty cycle the specific, application, all fits, with. With what the technology cost today. So. Electrified. Technology. Is coming and Cummins. Is writing ourselves, we, see about a 20 to 25 year transition. Period from what we what we use today. So, there's kind of phase one these are our early adopter, programs, sociability. Needs are kind of the, big drivers you know think of air pollution noise pollution. Hybrid, and all-electric technologies, can. Really solve that problem, and, there's. Certain, applications, if you look at the. Map you look at material handling you look at port or distribution, applications, vehicles, that are limited to say 25, miles an hour or lower, transit. Bus School Bus applications. Urban. Delivery vehicles, all, these have very short. Repetitive, routes where. The duty cycle matches, their, current technologies, and capabilities of, this of, it today, as. Well as the drive cycles I talked about and there's a lot of subsidies that we know of. That. Are supporting. Transit. Bus and school bus integration. Into different urban areas. So. Phase two as move on and, improved technologies, it's going to you know wider regulations, they're going to support more and more vehicles. Being. Able to use these technologies, the. Duty cycles will start to make more sense as technology, improves with. Larger, capacities, within batteries, better, chemistry's, from the lithium-ion space. Subsidies. Will still of course exist, and, then of course as the infrastructure, continues to expand, it. Will allow. Vehicles to, you. Know from other applications, that may have different. Distribution sites and charging sites that aren't quite as feasible from a localized, region to. Start making more sense as well. And. Then Phase three this is really where the viable economics, really kicks in and makes sense so not just for businesses. With subsidies and incentives to. Move to electrification really, the consumer market as well will. Be incentivized. Purely from the economic standpoint to. Accept lithium-ion hybrid, electric technologies. So. Power trains that we have today of course diesel Cummins. Being a big, leader in diesel technology, heavy, duty long-haul is is a major application where, this is still. Relevant, today and. Even Cummins we believe for for decades to come diesel, will still be the major. Player. In this long-haul, market. With, the duty cycle that they run the miles that they run per day the, technology, and infrastructure just isn't there today or even, in recent, decades to. Allow that to move out, natural. Gas, so. Again more Regional Hall applications. There's, certain markets right now especially. The refuge truck, where. There have. Economically. Priced natural. Gas and it makes a you know the whole TCO, equation. Makes sense for them, and. Then there's kind of a hybrid space so this is lithium-ion, battery modules, mixed, in with either natural, gas or diesel engines. You, know think of a utility truck where it still needs to drive on the highway at high speeds or get to a, job, site that may be out in the country that. Once they get on site there, may be regulations. That limit their, diesel, emissions. So, this. Is a perfect example where, they can turn off the primed power diesel turn, on the batteries and work, with, their full tool and boom boom arm operations, without, the need for that diesel.
And. Then of course full, electric transit bus that's. A big market right now it's an early stage one adopter, and. Again. It's it's able, to use the technology and. Its. Incent device today. So. Cummins has a powertrain, of choice we, are not going to just, push diesel we're not going to just push battery, electric, and. We think these markets are gonna play together with us rather than battle each other so. Again it makes sense for some markets to have diesel, have, gasoline internal, combustion, engines for, some applications, hybrid is what's most appropriate not, just now but also in the future to, have that prime mover as well as full. Electric capability. Then. Of course battery electric technologies within the vehicles, and. Then, fuel cells of course whether this is prime, fuel cell if you'll sell hybrid, with some battery module. System. So. Accumbens has the power to. Deliver this we've, been. Around. For a hundred years almost now and, that, gives us a lot of. We've. Had a lot of time to develop our technology, and really understand, the trucking market on and off highway, industrial. Applications, with. Technology, comes great. Advancements, and safety and reliability without, having to. Downplay. Our quality of product at all powertrain. Of choice I've already talked about. Capabilities. Across applications so, again working in this space for so long, we understand, there's so many different market niches just within trucking, or, on or off highway we've. Dealt with so many of them and succeeded, that so many of them so we have a deep application, level understanding of. Of. What powertrain, truly does make sense today and tomorrow for. These different applications. Ability. To achieve scale, again. Without, sacrificing. Quality of our product you, know we produce over a million million, engines a day diesel engines I'm, sorry a year. And. 15 million in, the field today so. We. Know what it takes to achieve scale, not. Just in Diesel's but we're gonna take that into electrification, into, the future. Security. Of supply so. This is difficult for you see a lot of startups in electrification right, now it's. Difficult for them to maintain. Secure, supply sometimes. Big suppliers don't take them seriously, Cummins, again, with our presence in the market we, can have that partnership, with, strategic. Suppliers. To ensure lithium-ion. Chemistry. Quality, and. That we will be around for, our customers for years to come and.
Then A global footprint we. Have thousands of distributors, around. The world that, we're able to now they work with to understand their direct needs, but. As. Well distribute our product in order to do this logistical. Amana that makes sense. So, we have a huge focus on investment. There's. Roughly 60,000. Employees with, incumbents, in about. 10,000, of them are engineers, focused on technology advancement, throughout. Cummins we. Spend about 700 million dollars a year on, powertrain. Innovation, in. Cummins, for, electrified, power business unit alone has, committed, five hundred million dollars over. A three year period. Particularly. Just to. Develop. Electrified. Technologies. So. This is we're, in the middle of that period right now and. Again pulling in acquisitions, within organic growth of. Brand. Well Johnson Matthey battery systems as well as EDI has. Allowed us to expand. Our workforce our technology. Advancement. And. Really. Become full not just product with full system integrators of that technology, as well. So. Just a quick background of, what, the products that Cummins will offer so, again to create a full battery system you have to start with solid materials, so. We have an, electro chemistry team we, do not specialize. In. Building. Cells but we understand, the chemistry the. Mixtures, the construction, of the cells to, work with those suppliers and specify. Exactly what we need for. Any. Application, so, we procure cells we buy cells and. We build battery, modules, battery packs. The. Battery management system is the brains that controls. All the performance. Limitations, this is also. The. Safety of the, piece so this is 100%, controlled in-house we, do all the hardware and software development. Which. Gives us great control to that to that piece performance, and safety. Thermal. Management again, Minnesota's, cold environment, one place we're. Keeping. The, temperature, of those cells and optimum range, is really important so it's something we have a lot of a lot of experience in. So. We take those packs battery, modules, combine. Them with vehicle. Power electronics, controls. Maybe, an engine if it's replication. Gearboxes. Transmissions. Different. Wirings, cooling. Accessories, to create full. System, integrated, pieces. In. Full full vehicle offerings, not just component, level. So. Again Cummins we believe we're gonna be a leader in, the markets that we serve we're, not just again system integrators, we do do that but. We spend a lot of money and a lot of time a lot of resources. Developing, our technologies, being deeply. Integrated in what we do to. Make sure we have the best product most quality product the safest product. For. The market and timing that it is thank. You very much. Thank, you mr. post at, this point we. Are going to go to questions, for, members I'm, gonna ask the pages, if they would bring up a couple of chairs so. All of our presenters could come up and I'd invite mr.. Boyd, I've got a question for you if you could get yourself in front of a microphone. Like. To ask a question mr.. Boyd about platooning. That. You spoke of and. It's, it's gonna be kind of an in artful question, but. I'm. Picturing a, series, of 18. Wheelers going down the highway. Effectively. Creating, a barrier that. Would prevent other, motorists. From getting around them because maybe. They're they're, too, close or, you know whatever the case might be and. So. If, you could explain a little bit more detail how this platooning. System, would work, from. A standpoint if motorists, want to get around them and, also what happens if a motorist, gets in between these trucks that. Would, maybe interfere, with the radar that they are using to platoon, with mr.. Boyd yes. Sir chairman. So, a key element of this is that we only allow platooning, on multi lane divided. In limited access highways so. In any operating environment, where platooning, would be occurring there's, a passing, lane, always. There in, addition, this. Is basically built this is trying, to create more orderliness. In. Comparison, to what's happening today on the where the trucks are out there, stacked. Up without, connectivity between them without safe without the active safety without the driver teamwork, so, we tried to address the status quo the trucks are out there today, so, boaters will be able to pass in that in, that other Lane sometimes, there's two too late and sometimes there's three but. There's always that a delay so these trucks are moving you, know at proper. Speed at. The speed limit working. Together just pairs of trucks and they. Aren't obstructing, both lands by any means in. Addition, in, terms of the vehicles cutting in the. System will detect the vehicle cutting, in and make space for that vehicle. Separates. The Platoon out and so. There's no issue for motorist needs to exit the highway, and.
Choose To do so between the trucks or. Enter the highway and the system adapts to that there's, a video that's in my presentation, that shows some. Examples of this, kind of interaction and how, the drivers also work to anticipate as, they approach interchanges. Vehicles. Coming on they may separate the platoon proactively, they, may lane change to make space so, this tip represents, no it, no additional. Obstacle, to traffic, flow in fact, we think it improves upon it so mr. Boyd if vehicle. Gets in the gap, the. System is gonna recognize, the. The vehicle that is not involved in the platoon, while. At the same time recognizing, the. Vehicles, either before, or being in front of or behind, you. That are involved in the platoon is that correct that's correct and the reason that we're, able to do that as we're using not just the radar but, also this 5.9. Gigahertz, vehicle. Vehicle communication that's. Uniquely. Identifying. The two trucks so. The two trucks are aware of each other over that spectrum, there's. The radar between the trucks so. A vehicle, cutting in the radar detects that vehicle makes space at, the same time those trucks are still communicating. Over, that DSRC. Spectrum, and, are aware at each other's position, at all times we also look. At wheel speed we. Look at high-resolution. GPS, we have multiple, ways in which the, trucks stay, aware of where. Each of the trucks are as well as observing. The other vehicles around using other sensors, and a final question mr., Boyd the. Platooning. Technology. Is. Available, right now is that correct correct we, were moving Freight today in Texas Thank, You mr. Boyd thank you sir senator. Osmond thank mr. chair for mr. Boyd I've, asked this question about autonomous, vehicles, in general so. I have two questions one is latency. If. Our. Computers, are wonderful, things and, there, are issues sometimes issues worth they, can't compute, fast enough or they. In, many people will say freeze up on us what. Happens, when. The system moves. In the, the onboard system moves, as a latency, issue part. Two of that is you, know when you're connecting, two or more. Vehicles. Together one, vehicle. May have a latency issue or you may have a latency issue with going, to a network, itself, which, you know a wireless, network would. Be an example of that what, happens there and then the last question is you, know we change speed limits here, in the legislature, sometimes, even. Locals will change speed limits but those are much, more. Unlikely, that that would have an effect because, those, are not two-lane. Multi. Freeways. Basically. How. Does your system, adjust, for, changing. Right now just right, now you go from 55. To 75, to 65, how does how, do the the computers on board deal. With that type of changing. Environment, mm-hmm, questions. For mr. Boyd. Yeah. Mr., mr., Boyd and, and, you, have to excuse me I have to recognize, who is speaking so the record knows who was speaking otherwise, it, gets kind of confusing mr., Boyd Thank You mr. chairman. Great, question it gives a 3-part three, parts to that so. A key part of this to recognize, is that we. Are not going up to the cloud for. Any kind of real-time, safety communication, between the trucks it is point-to-point, between, those vehicles that's. What that that's why we're using this v2v vehicle-to-vehicle, communications. Dedicated. Spectrum is, to provide, for that, superfast. Connection, that's just point-to-point so there's no delay going through the cloud, related. To that we. Also have a an, additional, computer on each of our trucks that's monitoring, the other the, health of the system and the other the other ECU's. If, there's any delays that are detected, in the operations, of any of those units any. Late. Any dropped, packets, connection. Loss between the trucks we, have the natural fall back approach that we dissolve the platoon and we, err on the side of being very conservative on that and dissolve whenever there's any kind of possible, issue so. That's the beauty, of it actually is that we can dissolve the platoon the active safety is remaining. Continuing. On those on those systems that the active safety systems are our. Separate, systems that we're integrating, to and they have their own ability, to take, over if there's any, delays. Or failures anywhere else in the system so. That's how we handle those those elements. I. Think, that mostly addresses the latency question the, only use of the cloud is for, our monitoring, over, time of the trucks the trucks position, using, cellular, and.
But. Onboard the trucks the trucks are able to do everything they need from. A safety critical standpoint right, there point-to-point between the trucks the. Last question was on speed, so, we're Matt we use a mapping approach, similar, of Google Maps and other tools that I'm sure you all use and we're, with that tracking. Where the trucks are and what, the speed limit or other rules. Are pertinent to that area and we're, only allowing, platooning on multi lane divided limited access highways where. The speeds don't tend to change as much, but. We're observing those and the, trucks then, are adjusted, to the proper speed for. That for, that area so this system actually improves, speed, compliance, against the status quo thanks. For your good questions. Senator. Dibble. Thank. You mr. chair. Unfortunately. I've stepped out at. The key moment to. Greet. Some folks in the Rotunda so. So. This my question may have already been discussed. And. If it has been just tell. Me you'll you'll bring me up to speed later. So. It. Might have been mentioned that the can did not mated vehicles, task. Forces meeting on Thursday. To. Talk about a couple of legislative recommendations. Senator, Dibble had not been okay okay so, so, that's happening on Thursday, I don't. Think it's any secret that's a part, of their report that they were gonna bring forward a couple of proposed, pieces. Of legislation one. Of them having to do with testing of automated, vehicles the other is, allowing. For, platooning. Of trucks on our on, our highways. And, in. The draft language. Is going to be discussed by the task. Force on Thursday, so coming to the. Legislature, near you very soon, and, I'm. Actually, looking at the draft right here. My. Question, is so, there's some experience, with platooning in Texas right. So. A couple of questions one is is that just happening on the open roads number. One number two, what. Has been the response. Of, the, driving public to. That. You. Know has it been are. People aware, do, they know how to interact with the platoons has, there been an. Effort to educate. And engage the, public so that so, that they know that these, platooned, trucks are running, around their freeways so they can keep their eyes out for them and they know how to respond, and react to them and should. This. Legislation, include some provisions, for, public. Awareness engagements. Awareness. Building. And. Training etc. So they know how to respond, and react when they see these out. In the freeways should, a legislative. Proposal come forward and be passed into law. Mr.. Portman, thank. You thanks, for the good questions yes. So we are operating on the roads in. In Texas today in a number of other states Arizona. In. California, we have a testing allowance in California, there's. A new bill being, developed in California, this. Year that may, lead to some. Steps, beyond that in terms of maybe some limited commercial deployment allowance, but. For. But in Texas this is where we have most of our activity, now this is not large numbers of trucks and we, would expect that in. Here in Minnesota and other parts of the region this, is not a situation where if a bill is passed that suddenly there's thousands, of trucks in operation. This, is a solution that's being brought forward by a, few, major fleets that want to try this out and will and are aiming to use it for certain parts, of their regional, haul operations, not every, truck and not every, truck in the road by any means what. We have found is that motorists. Don't notice that, the trucks, are platooning because. Trucks today are often traveling very, close already, so, these trucks don't look that different we were in Florida we ran for four days straight on. The Florida Turnpike from. Orlando to Jupiter with Highway Patrol on board and with DoD, observing. And, their. Observation, was that the motorists didn't even notice anything, different about these trucks and that, there was no negative. Effects to the traffic around them. We. We, certainly recognize, that as the numbers of trucks would increase using, the solution, that public. Education is important, and certainly. We'd love to you know work with you and and the, body here regarding, any relevant. And public education elements. That could be meaningful but. Today we've not seen an issue on that, but.
Those Are good questions and, love to work with you on this. Senator. Kiffmeyer. Misson, Thank You mr. chair it, very interesting, presentation. We. Have these drivers, this technologies, now in the new cars that are coming out and I, think the. Folks around are more comfortable. By. Seeing, them more round and they are a great boon and a great asset to, to. That and I'm sure it is for trucks as well probably. One of the issues that I think I run into frequently, though, is two trucks driving, alongside each, other and a. Bit of frustration and. Some Road, angst, coming, from two trucks alongside. Each, other and. The. Whole speed, and all of that so how, would these kinds, of vehicles handle. That situation where. You've got a lot of Technology going on but that's, that's the
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