Startup "Embark" track successfully crossed the US by automatic driving

Startup to develop tracks that can autonomously run "Embark"Succeeded across the United States in automatic driving. This is an automated driving truck under the umbrella "Otto"Prior to competition such as rival, it seems to be the first step to make a major change in the form of delivery by an important truck / trailer in the transport system in the United States.

Embark's self-driving truck completes 2,400 mile cross-U.S. Trip | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/embarks-self-driving-truck-drove-2400-miles-across-the-u-s/

Autonomous Embark Truck Completes 2,400-Mile Cross-Country Trip - Geek.com
https://www.geek.com/tech/autonomous-embark-truck-completes-2400-mile-cross-country-trip-1730239/

Embark is a start-up company based in San Francisco and founded in 2016 and is developing autonomous driving technology for large transportation vehicles such as trucks. It is a startup that has been receiving attention in the development of automatic driving technology with high technical strength, such as having a lot of engineers from Audi and SpaceX with the support of Y combinator.

The automatic driving technique under development by Embark is a mechanism for machine learning processing of data from vehicle sensors and does not use high resolution map. For this reason, there is an advantage that it is unnecessary to install detailed route information beforehand for automatic driving, it can flexibly cope with new routes, and costs are low.


About the automatic operation track under development by Embark, you can check with the following movie.

Embark, Frigidaire and Ryder Open 650 Mile Automated Freight Route - YouTube


Embark, who had already succeeded in long-distance automatic driving of 650 miles (about 1000 kilometers) between Los Angeles and El Paso, traveled a distance of 2,400 miles (about 3900 kilometers) from Los Angeles on the West Coast to the Jacksonville on the East Coast I tried to "cross the United States by automatic driving" and succeeded safely running through the planned route at the end of the 5-day drive.


Embark has released a state of automatic driving for one hour of a track crossing the United States in a movie.

Automated Truck Drives Across the Country - Embark - YouTube


Embark's truck running on the highway keeping the speed around 70 mph (about 110 km / h). The lane that the automatic driving system is recognizing is lighted up.


Clear gentle curves without problem.


If there is a late vehicle ahead, it will overtake the passing lane with sufficient margin while maintaining sufficient inter-vehicle distance.


When overtaking is completed, lane change from the overtaking lane to the driving lane promptly.


Embark is currently developing the automatic driving truck is not intended to completely replace the driver with the driver, it is to reduce the burden on the driver. Human drivers are responsible for driving in complex urban areas, and it is supposed to run in an automatic driving in a relatively monotonous section with a relatively low traffic volume such as a highway. As a result, even in this inter-American driving test, people were waiting in the driver's seat in an emergency so that they can be switched from the automatic driving mode to the driving by a human driver. According to Embark's CEO Alex Rodriguez, most of the operations are performed autonomously, events that require human intervention for hours do not occur, and most occur only for a few seconds It was said that.


At the moment, the development of an automatic driving truck of the type that the driver waits in the driver's seat is underway, but ultimately the goal is to establish fully automatic driving technology with no driver. The route that took five days to run is that it is possible to travel in just 2 days, as there is no need to take a break if it is a driverless fully automatic operation. Once automated driving truck technology is completed, it seems that logistics in America that heavily depends on truck / trailer will change drastically.