PlusDrive auto-guides a rig but doesn’t replace the driver

Ready for the future of driving?

You can buy some of it in the latest trucks equipped with advanced driver assistance features. They help you steer and peer ahead and to the sides to keep you from colliding with other traffic and apply the brakes to avoid rear-ending or T-boning something.

Or maybe you’d prefer adding those capabilities to the truck you already have. Plus.ai, based in China with U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., can do that by retrofitting a computer-controlled system of radar, lidar, and cameras to existing trucks. It claims to be the only company now able to do so.

It’s called PlusDrive. It is a form of autonomous driving, though not close to the type that will drive a truck almost totally by itself.

PlusDrive was one of the five finalists in an annual Truck Writers Technical Achievement Award competition (described recently in Land Line Magazine), which made me curious. In mid-May, I visited the people at Plus.ai’s headquarters for instruction on how their system works and to drive it myself. I came away thinking it’s something I’d like to have.

So would Michael Crystal, a former owner-operator who now demonstrates PlusDrive to potential customers.

“I would absolutely want it,” he declared at one point during a test drive.

He said he likes its safety benefits and relieves him of some work. He had brought over a company demo rig from Fremont, where he lives and Plus has a tech facility, and parked it outside the office. The Peterbilt 579 tractor had no roof racks to support antennas and cameras, as do other auto-driving systems. Instead, PlusDrive mounts the gear in the front bumper, on mirror brackets, and inside the cab near the windshield. The equipment includes three radars, two lidars, eight cameras and a computer with proprietary software.

It can’t do everything

Earlier, I had gotten a thorough briefing on the system from Joan Amaratti, operations manager, who explained what PlusDrive does and doesn’t do. It keeps a truck in its lane, adjusts speed and applies the brakes as needed. It operates only on limited-access highways, like freeways and interstates, where it tracks lane markings and constantly monitors traffic up ahead, as well as in adjacent lanes. The current version does not work in nonhighway situations. There the driver must take over. And there are situations, like putting out triangles or flares during a breakdown, that are easily handled by a human but are impossible for a computer.

The driver engages and disengages the system by pressing the plus-sign button on the steering wheel: twice for on and once for off. Tapping the brake pedal also will disconnect it.

I climbed into the Pete, and Crystal directed me onto city streets, and I drove the truck normally, which was easy because it had a healthy Cummins X15 running through a smooth Eaton automated manual transmission.

For a truck to be retrofitted with PlusDrive, it must have an automated or automatic tranny and electric-assisted steering, in this case from Bosch.

The system is pretty smart, but it can’t manipulate a gearshift lever and needs an electric motor to operate the steering.

At the 101 freeway, we took the southbound ramp. Late morning traffic was comparatively light and flowing smoothly. I hit the plus-sign button twice and the system took over. Crystal said we’d head south for about a half hour, then return. It was long enough to get a good feel for PlusDrive. It was set for 55 mph max, California’s long-standing limit for heavy trucks, so most other vehicles cruised by us. He noted that the system followed traffic ahead and kept our rig centered in its lane. It “nudged” us slightly left or right when another rig was alongside and when we approached a vehicle on the shoulder.

The computer constantly analyzed the electronic input from radar, lidar and cameras, decided what the observed objects were, and acted accordingly. It will recognize most things we do, but will operate only on limited-access highways, like the 101. There it worked well, even changing lanes when necessary and merging with traffic entering the freeway, and Crystal said it’s especially nice to have in stop-and-go situations.

It keeps an eye on the driver

PlusDrive is not a hands-off system, so I had to keep at least one hand on the steering wheel. If it didn’t sense any torque input from me, it sounded an audible and visual alarm and after a few seconds, was set to disconnect. And like other lane-keeping-assist products, the wheel resisted if I tried to bear left or right to change lanes, but relented when I used the turn signals.

I also had to keep my eyes on the road ahead. If I didn’t – and a couple of times I purposely looked to the right or left, or down at my phone – it again registered alarms and warned of a disconnect. How did it know? From one of the eight cameras on the A-pillar to the left, staring at me and telling the computer when I appeared distracted. Call it Big Brother, but it needs to know what a driver is doing. Crystal said that if I hadn’t reacted, it would’ve presumed something was wrong and eventually stopped the truck.

Plus’s engineers write the software that controls everything. It took years to develop the system to operate smoothly and safely, said Shawn Kerrigan, the company’s chief operating officer.

For now Plus offers a package of hardware and software for installation on existing fleet trucks.

Amazon has ordered 1,000 units and has begun installation, and it might buy a stake in Plus.

A client fleet’s contractors might be able to obtain systems, but otherwise Kerrigan does not see owner-operators as customers. The company’s ultimate goal is to sell the system’s software, with or without the hardware, to truck manufacturers. Nikola, builder of battery- and fuel-cell electric trucks, has announced that it will offer PlusDrive starting late next year.

The company will not say what PlusDrive costs, but Lauren Kwan, vice president of marketing, claimed it will pay for itself in about two years. Savings come from accident avoidance, fuel economy betterment of up to 10% and driver satisfaction. The latter she says will result in better driver retention, and studies show it costs thousands of dollars to replace a driver who quits. Good owner-operators are difficult to replace, too, and you might want to stay on with a company that enabled you to obtain a PlusDrive system. LL