LAS VEGAS – Is there a world for autonomous school buses, after all? This industry might not have a choice, according to Rivian CEO and founder R.J. Scaringe.
Conversations increased at ACT Expo this week around autonomous commercial vehicles, with several experts indicating during sessions that self-driving trucks powered by AI will explode onto the scene over the coming decade. That point was punctuated Wednesday morning by Scaringe.
“We’re going to see changes that are maybe the most significant from [a] societal impact in the history of the adult world, where we’ll have AI capabilities that can do a very large percentage of tasks that today are done by humans, that’ll free up human bandwidth to do other things,” he said during a main stage fireside chat.
“I’m of the view that we as the humans are going to continue to find higher value ways to use our time,” he added.
Scaringe suggested that over the next decade a “significant portion” of both consumer and commercial vehicles will be electric. And they will be “connected, highly intelligent” and drive themselves.
“And when I say that, I think the important thing to consider is, if you don’t have those things, what does that mean?” he asked the audience. “By 2035, if you’re a large-scale vehicle manufacturer, whether it’s on the consumer side or the commercial side, and you don’t have a connected, highly intelligent platform that’s running the software and electronics vehicle, and the vehicle doesn’t have self-driving capabilities, it’s hard to imagine maintaining market share.”
The question remains will school buses be driving themselves? Based on ACT Expo, where the commercial truck and bus industry leaders gathered, it is looking more likely. Many truck innovations eventually work their way onto and into school buses.
Amid more chatter on the role autonomous will play, notably first for heavy-duty trucking and last-mile delivery, fleets have definitively increased the use of data and connected technologies to drive more ROI, as shown by this year’s State of Sustainable Fleets report released at the conference.
Nearly everyone agrees autonomous technology for school buses won’t mean adult-less routes to and from school with rowdy children left to their own devices. But as Scaringe, opined, autonomous school buses could beg the question of how to redeploy school bus drivers as safety aides. Might that improve the driver shortage that the school bus industry has long suffered with? A leading cause of drivers leaving school districts is student on-board behavior and a real or perceived lack of support in addressing challenges.
Scaringe also discussed his new robotics company, Mind Robotics focused on AI-powered robots for industrial automation, launched earlier this year. The venture is using factory data at Rivian to actively explore human-like capabilities for industrial applications. My mind immediately wandered back to the school bus. Humanoids working with the children? What about the potential implications on how school bus data – and that from other motorists in an increasingly connected world – could further train and automate route operations ? A robot blocking traffic to allow students safer passage to and from their bus stops, perhaps? The sky is the limit.
Re-energized Talks About Electric School Buses
Meanwhile, electric vehicles, which had been the main draw for ACT Expo over the last several years, re-emerged on day three with several exhibit floor presentations about V2G deployment following Scaringe’s talk on the mainstage.
V2G is showing gains, as charge management continues to be a must for fleets. This was evidenced by projects stretching from California and Oregon to New Jersey and New England. Challenges remain, presenters OpConnect, The Mobility House and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Quality admitted. The least of which being how utility providers are setting rates for what school districts can earn for feeding the grid. But the presentations also demonstrated the successes and learned opportunities. Those figures are only expected to increase as the EPA Clean School Bus Program is expected to return this spring.
On Monday after the exhibitor floor opened, Zenobe facilitated a discussion about a complex yet successful school bus electrification project in Massachusetts. It relied on a collaborative effort between Zenobe to identify grants and incentives as well as implement the charging infrastructure alongside school bus contractor Beacon Mobility, OEMs Micro Bird and Thomas Built Buses, Mass CEC and National Grid.
Also on Monday, propane school buses continued to show ROI. Anthony Jackson, director of student transportation for Bibb County Schools in Georgia, shared his experiences with the fuel. Savings from using propane rather than diesel has resulted in savings of nearly $3 million over the last several school years and an over 30 percent decrease in cost per mile in fuel alone, to $0.27 per mile when operating propane compared to $0.39 per mile with diesel. The maintenance savings were even better at a nearly 49-percent reduction, to $0.23 per mile with propane from $0.45 per mile with diesel.
Evident at ACT Expo was the wide reach of connected vehicles and data driving AI activity. That realization, after all, spurred an event rebrand by producer TRC Clean Solutions to expand the acronym that originally stood for advanced clean transportation to encompass AI and autonomous, connected and technology.
Eric Neandross, president of TRC Clean Transportation Solutions, on Tuesday asked an OEM panel, which included International Motors CEO Mathias Carlbaum, if in 25 years their companies will be technology providers rather than simply truck manufacturers. But the answers turned attention back to diesel remaining a major player for decades to come, burning cleaner and cleaner while continuing to supplement battery-electric and all the connected software that goes with it.
Things haven’t changed that much, after all.
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