Waymo kicked off its self-driving truck program in 2017 and two years later launched a local hotshot delivery partnership with car retailer AutoNation, picking up spare car parts and delivering them to repair shops in the Phoenix area in the company’s driverless-enabled Chrysler Pacifica vans. This year, the company partnered with UPS Stores in the area, using those same vans to pick up packages and deliver them to a UPS sorting facility.
Waymo’s Head of New Business Development Lauren Barriere says the company’s two early shipper partners have been drawn to the service because the Waymo delivery vehicles “can be ordered on demand,” she says, in an industry where the efficiency of assets is problematic.
The average industry asset utilization rate is about 50 percent, with about three hours of dwell time baked in for many pickups and deliveries, compounded by up to 33 percent of miles that are driven empty.
As the driverless platform matures, Trucking Commercial Lead Charlie Jatt says the company’s intent isn’t to serve as a liaison between shippers and receivers. Its preference is to become the technology solution for all parties concerned, with a long term business model that calls for providing “driver as a service.”
Waymo is forging ahead in a driverless segment that in the last two years has lost two players who were once major competitors: Uber and Starsky Robotics. Both companies shuttered their autonomous truck operations within the last two years.
However, Waymo’s approach to the autonomous trucking segment is somewhat different. At least initially, Uber and Starsky Robotics were playing simultaneously the role of fleet and tech startup. Waymo rather seeks to partner with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to have its driverless technology integrated onto the truck, and to work with fleets to provide software services, like support for mapping and remote fleet assistance. Waymo, Jatt says, has been working closely with the OEMs, fleets and shipping customers “to develop a business model to enable an already thriving industry rather than disrupt it.”
