Uber's Advanced Technologies Group has a new version of its testing transport truck for autonomous tech. The new model features an updated technology stack, including a 64-channel spinning lidar array, which is something never used previously on any of the former Otto's test trucks.
The Uber ATG truck notably drops all Otto branding, as you can see, since Uber retired that name in May following a trademark dispute raised by Canada's Otto Motors, and after the self-driving trucking company Uber acquired became the impetus for a suit by Alphabet's Waymo contesting that Otto execs took confidential company info when they departed Google.
Uber's Advanced Technology Group has taken over ownership of the project, with Otto falling under its umbrella as of last year, and now the trucks have been upgraded with some aspects of ATG tech for the first time. But ATG trucks product manager Alden Woodrow told me the former Otto team based in San Francisco is still leading the truck tech.
"Otto was based in San Francisco, and so with the integration, most of our engineering effort is still based in San Francisco for the trucks," he said. "But one of the great things about being part of this larger team is we have that team in Pittsburgh that has a really world-class team and that has had several years' head start on developing similar technologies. So we work really closely with the team in Pittsburgh."
Woodrow also noted that in addition to close collaboration between the Pittsburgh and San Francisco teams, the new ATG office in Toronto under Raquel Urtasun will offer additional opportunities to help further develop their tech.
The new Uber ATG truck tech loadout also includes upgraded components and software throughout the vehicle in addition to the new spinning LiDAR, and is completely refreshed, with new hardware sensors and new software components throughout. This updates the design that was used previously, including during Otto's press-grabbing autonomous Budweiser freight shipment haul, which subsequently earned a Guinness World Record for "the longest continuous journey by a driverless and autonomous semitrailer truck."
Woodrow also says that this tech refresh also was not made as a direct result of the ongoing Uber/Waymo legal fight. The lidar used in the new design is an off-the-shelf part (most likely an HDL-64E sourced by Velodyne, given the design and specs, though he wasn't able to confirm due to confidentiality agreements), rather than one developed in-house.
"It's an off-the-shelf system from a third-party, so it's actually separate from some of the things at issue in the Waymo suit about us developing our own lidar, it's a totally separate product," Woodrow said. "This is totally independent of that; it's always been part of the plan to integrate the Otto technology with the ATG technology. The Otto stack actually didn't use 64-channel lidar at all."
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