AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: Mary “Missy” Cummings calls herself a techno-realist. By day, she's a professor at Duke University and the director of Duke's Humans and Autonomy lab. Her day-to-day work is in artificial intelligence and robotics, and she’s quite skeptical about some of claims of autonomous driving’s current practitioners. Although she says she's 100% behind robotic trucks in the long term, she says the hype surrounding autonomous cars and trucks has pushed far beyond what the technology is actually capable of today. Find out why Dr. Cummings is concerned about how fast autonomous trucks appear to be approaching commercialization.

Duke Faculty: Mary "Missy" Cummings 

Humans & Autonomy Overview - Mary "Missy" Cummings 

GeekWire Summit: Mary "Missy" Cummings, Director, Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke University

From Piloting Fighter Jets to Developing AI | Missy Cummings | Inclusion in Tech | Cognizant 

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AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS SPECIAL REPORT: Vijaysai (Vijay) Patnaik helped start and is now the Product Lead for Waymo’s self-driving trucks program. He says he’s confident the company will be able to safely and responsibly deploy this technology on public roads. Since Waymo began work on autonomous cars more than a decade ago, the company’s cars and trucks have logged more than 20 million real-world miles plus 15 billion more miles in computer simulations. Vijay explains some of the intricacies of the autonomy that controls the trucks and how it interacts with other road users. He talks about how the autonomy handles some unique situations, and how public perceptions of the technology are changing for the better.

Waymo Via 

Waymo Via blog 

Waymo to Headline Fleet Forward Virtual Conference 

Waymo Outlines Plans to Integrate Autonomous Trucking in Fleets

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Staying healthy while living in a truck is a tough thing to do at the best of times. Staying healthy and positive becomes doubly difficult living under the stress of a pandemic. In this COVID-19 Special Report, trainer, nutritionist and holistic health coach Sergio Rojas shares some great ideas on how to up your wellness game. He has worked with celebrities and professional sports teams like the Chicago Bulls. Today, he is HDT's Health and Wellness columnist and was previously the Director of Wellness at Hirschbach Motor Lines. He now runs a wellness consultancy called Vitality by Sergio. On this episode, Sergio talks about his work with Hirschbach's drivers and how diet, fitness, proper sleep and even meditation can improve health and wellness and reduce stress.

Vitality by Sergio 

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Sergio in HDT 

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Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes, from listening to your employees for the little tweaks that make their workdays more productive, to be a test fleet for new logistics systems and autonomous platoons, to leading a digital transformation at one of the country’s biggest truckload carriers. Heavy Duty Trucking's Truck Fleet Innovator awards, presented annually since 2006 and sponsored this year by ConMet, recognize fleet executives for their leadership role in fostering innovation in their companies and the industry. This episode features a conversation with Darrel Wilson, CEO of Wilson Logistics of Springfield, Missouri. Deborah Lockridge did the original Innovator interviews and joins Jim Park to discuss Danny Lilley, vice president of fleet systems and technology at Werner Enterprises of Omaha, Nebraska and Roy Markham, vice president of operations and transportation at Ben E. Keith Foods of Fort Worth, Texas. The other three Innovators are featured in episode 3.

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Driver turnover is a costly problem, but it's doubly hard to swallow when you already have good drivers, but you can hang onto them. Jim Park's guests in this episode, Jane Jazrawy of CarriersEdge along with Brad Fulton and Allyson Smith both of Stay Metrics, offer some tips that can help solve your retention problems.

Best Fleets to Drive For 

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What do maintenance data, safety technology, and more efficient pup trailers have in common? They’re all tactics taken by HDT’s 2020 Truck Fleet Innovators. Heavy Duty Trucking has presented its Innovator awards annually since 2006. They recognize fleet executives for their leadership role in fostering innovation in their companies and the industry. The hunt for the winners of this year's award, sponsored by ConMet, led us to Doug Lloyd, director of maintenance, Averitt Express of Cookeville, Tennessee; Chris Woody, safety manager, M&W Logistics of Nashville, Tennessee; and Mike Palmer, vice president of fleet services, Estes Express Lines in Richmond, Virginia. Meet the remaining three recipients of HDT's 2020 Truck Fleet Innovator awards in this episode.

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What are the most important truck safety improvements in the eyes of the folks who investigate transportation accidents? The National Transportation Safety Board's 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements offers 268 recommendations for improving transportation safety. The list includes identifying and treating truck drivers who may be at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea, and requiring forward collision warning and/or avoidance systems on all highway vehicles – including heavy trucks. NTSB board members Thomas Chapman and Michael Graham tell HDT Talks Trucking why the agency wants to see these changes implemented, and how the number of crash fatalities could be reduced substantially if the recommendations were followed by various regulatory agencies.

Sometime later this year the first of the GHG 2021 trucks will hit dealer lots. To meet the first round of GHG reduction targets, these trucks will be fitted mostly with existing fuel-saving technology; aero devices, low-rolling resistance tires, etc. To meet the 2024 and 2027 targets, truck makers may need to get a bit more aggressive in their use of advanced technologies. HDT's Jim Park and Mike Roeth of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency discuss how truck and engine makers will achieve those goals. As well, Robb Janak of Jacobs Engine Brakes and Joel Morrow, moderator of the 9+ MPG Facebook page share their thoughts on engine cylinder deactivation and advanced engine downspeeding.

HDT How GHG Phase 2 Changes the Way You Spec Trucks 

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Stefan Seltz-Axmacher created and ran Starsky Robotics, billed as the first venture to operate a truly driverless truck on a public highway. The company started in 2015 but closed its doors five years later, when, as he put it, the downpour of investor interest became a drizzle. He says investors were not prepared to fund the “last mile” of the project – honing and perfecting the artificial intelligence so that it performed flawlessly 100% of the time, a task that may have taken years. Will other AI-driven autonomous truck ventures run into similar problems perfecting their technology?

Starsky Robotics    

The End of Starsky Robotics

HDT Talks Trucking  Self-driving Trucks: Savior or Scourge for Trucking?

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HDT Talks Trucking's third season casts an eye toward the future. We talk with Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, the CEO and co-founder of now-defunct driverless truck startup, Starsky Robotics, about the possible future of autonomous trucks. We'll also dig into some of the advanced fuel-saving technology we might need to meet the strict fuel economy standards imposed by Phase 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction regulations. And we'll find out why The National Transportation Safety Board wants to see drivers tested for obstructive sleep apnea.

As well, we'll meet HDT's 2020 Fleet Innovators; six people who are never satisfied with the status quo and are always looking for ways to do things better.

We'll wrap up season three with some innovative ideas on how you can reduce driver turnover and make your company a more satisfying place to work. We'll speak with Jane Jazrawy of CarriersEdge along with Brad Fulton and Allyson Smith of Stay Metrics.

Stay tuned, Season Three drops July 1!

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