The road to the unknown and expecting the unexpected can be coined for the autonomous vehicle market. One group completely rely on autonomous vehicle and with a more innovative product, the solution shows that market is worth it. But here another group completely finds the autonomous vehicle to be complex and something needs time before it hits the road.

As per Mary Barra, GM CEO, “My definition of ‘innovative’ is providing value to the customer.”

The off-road heavy vehicles are meant for the B2B industry and they can be cost-saving and efficient with vehicles limited to be operable within a set boundary or construction premise. The vehicle allows the maximum controlling ability and easy way to monitor.

The off-road heavy high performance vehicle is expected to be USD 25 Billion with a forecasting 7% CAGR by 2027. The heavily dominated region is Asia-Pacific. The key players are Wildcat (US), AEV Conversions (US), Zone Offroad (US), Icon Vehicle Dynamics (US), 4 Wheel Parts (US), Extreme Offroad & Performance (US), Stylin Trucks (US), and Summit Racing Equipment (US). The majority of the players are from the US.

The pandemic showed the value of AVs and AI needs in the unexpected situation for the industry to keep growing no matter what are the current circumstances.

Off-road vehicles are also easy to operate in a confined location with proper Wi-Fi access points coupled with teleoperating abilities for safety purposes.

The new partnership in the market can be seen by SafeAI collaborating with Siemens for an autonomous, zero-emission heavy vehicle fleet for Obayashi Corporations.

SafeAI is a global leader in autonomous heavy equipment with Obayashi Corporation, a Japan-based global leader in the construction sector. The partnership is aiming for smarter, safer, sustainable, and more productive construction sites.

The partnership was announced in 2020 to address the construction issues such as unsafe working conditions, labor shortages, and rampant inefficiencies. Successful testing of over 580 load-haul dump cycles with an articulated autonomous dump truck was done.

They are working to bring the scaled AI-powered retrofit autonomy collaboration into the off-road vehicle market.

As per Bibhrajit Halder, SafeAI, Founder & CEO, more than 4 million zero-emission heavy vehicles are expected to be on the road by 2030.

As Mr. Halder, states, “At SafeAI, we’ve always been committed to making the heavy industry safer and more productive. Now in partnership  with Siemens, we can add ‘ more sustainable ‘ to that list.”

Siemens bringing its own autonomous-pantograph automatic charging technology with an analytic suite for reliable and safe applications. Simulytics, is a trustworthy platform simulator for regulators, government, insurance, tech developers, and operators by Siemens AG to accelerate the AV fleet market growth.

As per Andy Gill, Chief Operating Officer at Simulytics, “By creating a digital replica of the autonomous vehicle in its deployment environment, we can use our simulation technology to provide independent safety and performance analytics for both SafeAI and Obayashi”

Why Siemens as per Mr. Halder? “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”

But, are you interested in the electrification of off-road heavy vehicles? Are they in principle with the SDGs? Why retrofit heavy vehicles and in what way do they solve the emission problems?

As per Zubin Sarkar, Head of Strategy, Business Development, and Marketing at Siemens Commercial Vehicles “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 recycling and hence in line with circular economy principles to better meet net-zero goals. Combined with creative financing models and a rigorous focus on safety, there could be as many retrofitted zero-emission heavy vehicles as newly built zero-emission heavy vehicles by 2030. ”

AVIA Engineering will handle the retrofit project by a system integrator. They are known for their expertise in electrification and the mechatronics of trucks.

Hiroto Sato, COO at Obayashi SVVL (Silicon Valley Ventures & Laboratory), opinion on the current partnership,  “We’ve already started to see the powerful impact autonomous technology can have through our work with SafeAI over the last year. Now, with SafeAI’s partnership with Siemens, we will pioneer more sustainable operations to continue leading the way toward a smarter future for our industry.” 

If we compare the traditional vehicle market and the alternative drive market, you can experience more collaborations in different segments to speed up the process. The need for expertise from different sectors did open new doors for many new opportunities but also brought new partnerships and collaboration to work on the new complicated technology.

Nobody would like to stay back, even though the AVs are termed as one of the complicated stuff to understand but need to be tackled with the right kind of enthusiastic people who can make it happen. Even though it looks way out of your limits.