One of Pronto’s major advantages in bringing simplified autonomy to mines, quarries, and other commercial applications is our team’s deep experience in on-highway autonomous trucks.Tom Quimby, in a CCJ story, explored with our Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ognen Stojanovski how being at the forefront of the most important advances in the autonomous vehicle industry is helping Pronto deliver real value to real customers.
The article notes how Ognen “etched out his place in autonomous truck history” as part of the team whose “self-driving technology set a then-record for completing the longest trip in an autonomous truck.”
It connects how experiences like that have helped Pronto integrate “its A2B autonomous haulage system in off-road mining operations around the globe.”
Addressing the Challenges of Off-road Autonomy
In the story, Ognen notes that “driving conditions can be both more challenging and also less complex at times than on-road applications.” He adds to this point, saying:
“As far as the traffic conditions, you can obviously constrain it and control it a lot more and put operational safeguards more so than you can on a public highway where people do crazy things and it’s much more unpredictable. In that sense, it can be simpler off-road. But it could be a lot more challenging as far as obviously the terrain. You’re not driving with nice paved roads; you’re dealing with some real challenges. Tires blow out all the time at mines.”
The article discusses how our “lessons learned from off-road driving are passed along to on-road driving.”
For instance, Tom points out that “Pronto is the tech provider for the only truck-focused autonomous vehicle demonstration project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and led by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.”To learn about how Pronto AHS technology delivers autonomous haulage today, contact us at sales@pronto.ai, and join the conversation on LinkedIn and Twitter.
