Self-driving software maker Plus is partnering with Traton to bring its L4 autonomous systems … [+]
PlusAutonomous car software maker Plus has announced a major deal with one of Europe’s largest truck groups, Traton. This long-term partnership covers the commercial development of Plus’s SAE Level 4 autonomous driving solution, SuperDrive, on Scania, MAN and Navistar autonomous trucks manufactured by Traton. I’ve written before about game-changing deals Plus has made with other players in the trucking industry—Ivecofor example-and this partnership represents another major win for Plus. Let’s dive into this announcement and how I believe it gives Plus an element of permanence in the trucking industry.
In this context, Scania, MAN and Navistar are the commercial vehicle brands of the Traton Group for Sweden, Germany and the United States, respectively. Autonomous trucks from Scania and Navistar are already being tested on public roads in Europe and the United States with safety drivers, and there are future plans for series production and global commercial deployment of these trucks at scale.
The announcement of the partnership comes as Plus has made a significant change to its delivery model. Instead of offering a monolithic platform, the company has now broken down its offerings through its recently launched Open platform for autonomy. This approach allows vehicle OEMs to work with Plus to tailor the configuration of sensors, processors and other vehicle systems to provide exactly the desired level of autonomy, whether that means next-generation safety systems to augment human drivers, fully autonomous “driver-out” vehicles or anything in between.
It is worth emphasizing that Traton chose not only a long-term commitment, but also to implement Plus’ integrated L4 (fully autonomous) solution, SuperDrive. Traton could have chosen to license only individual units from Plus under the OPA model. Instead, it chose to go all-in with Plus technology. This is a huge win for Plus and the trucking industry as a whole.
On a recent episode of The Six Five Podcast, Daniel Newman and I discussed the Plus-Traton partnership.
The work required to put autonomy on the road
I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is to be successful for a company like Plus entering a mature market with a new technology. Not only does Plus need to prove this new standalone solution and its value, but it also needs to prove itself as a company that is able to deliver the solution at scale. And this is not a simple technology to prove, either. Artificial intelligence may be a buzzword permeating every technology category, but its raw value can certainly be seen in self-driving systems. Plus’ strategy was to demonstrate its value in advanced driver assistance systems, highly automated driving and the L4 autonomous driving solution.
How do these different levels of advanced driving create value for OEMs and Plus partners in terms of safety, driver retention and fuel efficiency? To address this, we need to take a step back and look at the different approaches OEMs have taken to adopting this technology. One option is to make them all at home. This approach is very challenging, even for an OEM with a lot of resources to work with, especially because in-house the manufacturer may not have the technological expertise and it may take a lot of effort and money to acquire that expertise. Daimler Truck, for example, is taking this approach and has partnered with Torc to build its autonomous driving solution in-house.
Another approach is to work with a technology vendor that has an all-in-one solution that covers hardware, software, and stand-alone network infrastructure. For example, two of the big five truck OEMs, Paccar and Volvo Trucks, do this with Aurora and the Aurora Driver solution. Note that Aurora goes straight to L4 technology, so it faces a lot of complexity.
The final approach for a truck OEM is to build a stack based on available software and hardware solutions. This approach is more similar to how truck OEMs handle other technology implementations in the current manufacturing process, but it requires a lot of moving parts. However, it also allows for more customization and control of the overall system. In this context, Plus has differentiated itself as an autonomy software solution with which truck OEMs can build their autonomous driving systems.
While this latter approach is more attractive to truck OEMs because of its familiarity and ease of customization, it somehow requires others to do the work. This is where Plus’ strategy really shines and is a big reason why Plus has captured two of the five major truck OEMs.
Establishing a sense of permanence
Plus did – and is doing – two things that have strengthened it as a major provider. The first thing was to recognize where autonomous driving is today and plan for the future. Unlike its straight-to-L4 competition, namely Aurora, Plus took the L4 stack and narrowed it down so the company could introduce L1 and L2-plus solutions first. This move by Plus had some benefits. First, Plus was able to prove itself in an already mature market without putting the big OEMs in a position where they had to make huge, dramatic changes. This gave Plus customers the opportunity to dip their toes in the water and get an idea of what it means to implement advanced driver assistance systems. The other advantage was that it allowed Plus to build around its L1 and L2-plus offerings rather than pushing all of its brands into L4 at once — and potentially before the market was ready. It built on the pieces of technology it has already proven and used the data collected from those deployments to feed the L4 solution.
By taking this approach, Plus is future-proofing its technology stack. Plus then recognized that some OEMs would want an all-in-one software solution, while others would only want certain pieces of it integrated into their own software stacks. By separating its software into an open platform for autonomy, Plus enabled itself to meet the needs of more manufacturers as L4 solutions became more readily available. These days, Plus works with Amazon, Iveco, Nikola, Bosch, Luminar and DSV for L2-plus implementations, while also providing L4 solutions to two of the world’s top five truck OEMs, as well as the largest road tolls operator in Australia.
The second thing Plus does well is develop partners. Most startups that set out to do just software focus on building that software — but then find they have to build a platform for it and end up doing it all. For Plus, it needed to prove its software without making major platform/infrastructure commitments, and it achieved this through partnerships with hardware companies. Plus understands that the problem of autonomous driving is too big for one company to tackle alone. Because of this understanding, since day one it has focused heavily on building solid partnerships. Almost all of my coverage of the Plus has talked about its partnerships with companies like Nvidia, BoschAmazon and OEMs including Nikola and Iveco.
In the future, I hope to see Plus develop even more partnerships with technology platform providers such as Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and even MediaTek. Intel has a strong focus on automotive chips and could use Plus software in the long run. Meanwhile, AMD is behind with its software and Qualcomm is looking to do it all on its own. But Qualcomm is also good at developing partnerships, and a partnership with Plus could put Qualcomm in an even better position. Another hardware manufacturer that could be a good partner is MediaTek, which is moving up the food chain. If MediaTek wants to get serious in the automotive space, a partnership with Plus could be a good fit – and give Qualcomm a run for its money. And keep in mind that these are only the chip companies that have known scalable platforms. Don’t forget TI, NXP, Ambarella and Renesas, who are also well placed to provide hardware.
Wrapping
Of the world’s five largest truck OEMs, one is trying to build the autonomous driving platform in-house, two are partnering with Aurora for the full hardware and software stack, and two more are partnering with Plus for the full L4 software stack. There’s still a lot of ground to cover for self-driving solutions, but the big five truck makers are all locked in for the future. It is interesting to note here that other AV developers, including Kodiak and Waabi, do not have OEM partners, which is crucial for scale-up development in L4 commercial trucks.
I’m excited to see how these self-driving solutions play out and drive innovation in the trucking industry. While the big truck OEMs have locked down these solutions, they are not set in stone, and I believe that once we see autonomous trucks on the road at scale, we will have a better idea of how all of these solutions will work in the long run.
Of the three approaches to implementing autonomous driving, we should look for which leads to organic innovation and growth and consider how quickly that innovation can grow over a fleet life cycle. The approach that faces the most competition usually sees the most innovation, and right now that seems to be the approach Plus and its partners are taking. In short, Plus is doing a good job of creating a platform to provide variety and choice to builders. I’m excited to see this technology mature and create safe and affordable autonomous trucks on the road.
