Autonomous driving software company Plus has just announced a partnership to enhance autonomous trucking in Japan by teaming up with autonomous software provider TIER IV. The Tokyo-based TIER IV, which makes open-source software for autonomous driving, is working closely with the Japanese government to execute its new Autonomy 2.0 efforts for Level 4 autonomous trucks on Japan’s expressways. The partnership also aligns both companies with recent AI trends, because trucking has become a valuable application for “physical AI.”
This news follows another partnership announcement from Plus late last year, when the Silicon Valley-based company released its SAE Level 4 trucking software in Europe and the United States in partnership with Traton — the $40 billion trucking subsidiary of Volkswagen — and its brands Scania, MAN and International.
Addressing Japan’s Acute Shortage Of Truck Drivers
The new partnership in Japan brings together Plus’s end-to-end virtual driver AI model with TIER IV’s Autoware-based platform to create a solution for L4 autonomous trucking. This solution will be co-engineered by the two companies specifically for the Japan market.
Although the need for autonomous trucks is global, Japan’s government has taken a particular interest in this area and created special programs to fund L4 autonomous truck development and deployment based on vehicles from Japanese manufacturers. Why? Not enough truck drivers to meet demand. One independent study projected that Japan will have fewer than two-thirds of the truck drivers it needs by 2030.
TIER IV was founded in 2015 and already has partnerships with the Japan-based truck manufacturers Mitsubishi Fuso (which is owned by Daimler) and Isuzu.
Plus And Traton Bring Level 4 Autonomy To Trucks In Europe And U.S.
Turning to the Traton partnership, the partner companies achieved SAE Level 4 autonomy through the beta 5.0 update to Plus’s AI-based driving software, SuperDrive. The companies have already begun to map hub-to-hub routes for a phased commercial deployment in Texas. Since Texas is a central area for U.S. national trucking routes and logistics, it makes sense as a place to begin Traton’s commercial rollout. In discussing the capabilities of the software release, Plus CEO David Liu showed a time-lapse video of a Traton truck successfully navigating surface streets and highways to make a delivery. During this video the safety driver did not once take the wheel, which is particularly impressive considering that the route was a 170-mile drive from San Antonio to Laredo, Texas.
The Traton and Plus teams in Sweden, Germany and the U.S. worked together to develop and deploy the SuperDrive software. In addition to the tests in Texas, the companies are actively testing and developing in Sweden; both of these trials are meant to pave the way for the companies’ anticipated 2027 commercial launch. (Torc and Aurora, two other well-established software providers in this space, have each announced that they are on similar timetables.) The Traton-Plus fleet pilot programs will continue through 2027 so Plus can continue to improve the perception features and overall quality of its software solution before launch.
Plus’s Perception-Based, AI-Accelerated System
While the TIER IV and Traton announcements are significant milestones for Plus, the company also has other partnerships in place with Hyundai, Iveco and Transurban, which could see those makers adopting some of the same software for their trucks. According to Plus, it has the most OEM truck partners of any autonomous driving software provider in the space. Its approach to autonomous driving is tied to its AV 2.0 technology, which leverages AI models to reduce the amount of code and complexity of the software.
The Plus AI solution is based on a perception model that leverages the stream of incoming sensor data to feed a model that assesses the current situation and predicts what other vehicles are most likely to do. These technologies are the foundation of much of what Plus offers, including the SuperDrive autonomous driving software. Plus also offers PlusDrive for ADAS, PlusProtect for safety and PlusVision for perception.
Preparing For The Future
While Plus is still a couple of years away from full commercial availability for its L4 autonomy systems, there is a clear roadmap in sight. Plus and its partners also have well-developed processes in place for offline testing, closed-road testing and public-road testing to continue to improve the software until it is ready to be released in production.
While there’s still a lot of work to be done between now and then, the potential for Plus’s software to enable new types of trucking logistics and increase the speed of commerce — while also improving safety — is huge. Meanwhile, its drumbeat of partnership announcements, besides potentially accelerating the pace of technology development, suggests that its approach to the technical and market challenges of autonomous freight driving is resonating with both top software vendors and major truck makers in its market.
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