By John Morrison, Chief Financial OfficerOne Stop Systems’ strategic focus is on artificial intelligence (AI) Transportables, a term self-defined by OSS to mean anything that moves or is transportable that requires the latest in technology, at the edge, operating in a harsh environment. Basically, the capabilities of the highest performance data center in the field. Though this definition incorporates a myriad of applications, one industry of focus is the use of such capabilities in autonomous or self-driving, long-haul trucks.
With all the potential applications, why choose autonomous trucks? It is all about the immediate opportunity, supported by the numbers! Fundamentally, everything that we possess and consume comes by truck, which has a daily economic impact. We hear of the exorbitant gas prices for diesel fuel and the shortages of 80,000 truck drivers, which is affecting the cost of everything we buy, and the availability of product delivery, while the continued increase in e-commerce is pushing demand even higher. The trucking industry has been wrestling with these challenges, and is welcoming innovative solutions in a traditionally conservative industry. As many truck companies are realizing, autonomous truck technology could solve or mitigate many of these challenges by reducing the need for drivers, expanding capacity, increasing efficiency thus improving operating margins, and providing benefits from improved safety.
While autonomous personal vehicles are slow to develop, the trucking industry is embracing autonomous trucks because there is demonstrated economic benefit for adoption. These economic returns are so clear and immediate once deployed, it is driving what is called a hub-to-hub model, leveraging technology that is available now. This model limits the objective to highways, significantly reducing the challenge to implement at scale.
In the past couple of years, over $10 billion dollars has been invested in autonomous truck driving start-ups and companies. These innovative companies are developing the software and sensor integration of lidar and camera-based perception systems that enable the truck to be self-driving. The software and processing of sensor data requires high performance, ruggedized processing and storage hardware to complete the system. This is where One Stop Systems’ compute and storage hardware is required. In this high-demand processing environment, autonomous trucks require the latest and highest processing and storage technology, normally only available within the latest data centers. OSS provides compute and storage platforms using current compute-technology that can withstand the vibration, temperature, dirt and power issues of operating inside a truck. OSS has the expertise and capability to provide the hardware necessary to support this multi-billion-dollar industry that will have a daily impact on the lives of every American, by reducing product transportation costs and improving efficiency.
Autonomous trucking is not a distant future dream, the technology capability is here, with expectations that by next year there may be 16,500 self-driving, long-haul trucks on road. We don’t have to wait, we can implement these capabilities now that will decrease the cost of transportation in excess of 25% through improved driver productivity, increased capacity, and operational savings.
The opportunity is tremendous, as it is estimated that there may be over 1.5 million autonomous trucks on the road by 2035, representing a $167 billion industry. The preliminary numbers tell the story, indicating that trucking companies may see as much as a 55% return on their investment in autonomous driving technology. This will further the competitive pressure for all trucking companies to adopt the technology, or fail to compete. One Stop Systems has the capacity to provide the expertise, and the highest and latest high-performance technology for processing and storage to make autonomous trucking a reality. This is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, with near-term prosperous financial results, in a market where OSS possesses the expertise to fulfill industry needs. That is why One Stop Systems is focused on addressing the needs of this industry.
Click the buttons below to share this blog post!
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Get the latest news, product releases, upcoming events, blog posts and more!
James Falasco
June 28, 2022
The entire concept of autonomous ground vehicles was driven by the original DARPA ALV ( autonomous land vehicle) program. This effort included driving the seminal technology in imaging, high speed computing,storage,AI and sensors.I was fortunate enough to participate by selling 48 out of 50 teams image processing systems that drove the LIDAR sensors providing the data to guide the vehicle in both on road and off road movement. The equipment package utilized filled a vehicle the size of a UPS delivery truck.Had we been able to utilize OSS solutions we would have approached the demonstration entirely differently from the beginning. One scenario would have been to model and simulate the mission set before the demonstration using one OSS configuration and then utilize a subset in the deployed testing. It would be interesting going forward integrating autonomous ground activity with airborne assets using Telemetry techniques. Currently numerous types of non dilutive funding exist to pursue these types of opportunities. I recently lined up a portfolio of opportunities revolving around embedded computing only to have the rugged computer supplier i defined walk away. Curious if OSS is interested in these types of pursuits ?