The port's operator, PSA International, now operates a fleet of more than 20 driverless trucks that operate 24/7 and are equipped with software developed by Boston startup Venti Technologies.
The self-driving trucks make up just a small part of PSA's 1,000-vehicle fleet, but the fact that the vehicles can continually perform missions independently and reliably without human assistance marks a major milestone for autonomous technology, said Heidi Weil, CEO and founder of Venti.
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“This is a major milestone towards the promise of autonomy becoming a reality,” Weyl said.
The same can't be said for robotaxis, a company backed by Google and General Motors that is burning through billions of dollars in cash with little prospect of turning a profit in the near future. Last fall, California regulators suspended Cruise's self-driving license after several accidents, including one in which a human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian, throwing him into the path of the Cruise vehicle.
So why do Singapore's port's self-driving cars seem to be progressing faster than robotaxis? For starters, operating autonomous vehicles in dense urban centers has always been difficult, given the number of variables — weather, road design, traffic patterns, pedestrians — that robotaxis must take into account.
Boston-based Venti Technologies has developed software that will enable dozens of trucks to operate autonomously around the clock at the port of Singapore. PSA International
But transportation hubs like ports, warehouses and airports are largely enclosed spaces, making it easier for companies like Venti to address technology shortcomings.
“The complexity of an enclosed garden like the one we work in is at least 10,000 times simpler in terms of the computational problems than an inner-city urban environment,” Weil said.
Additionally, logistics may be a more viable initial market for autonomous vehicles, given the shortage of truck drivers in major countries such as the United States and Japan, as well as the collapse of global supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have to get smarter,” Kim Pong Onn, CEO of PSA International, told the Globe. “The labour pool is getting smaller and costs are rising every year. It's getting harder to get drivers for manual cars.”
That's why Cambridge venture capital firm Safar Partners decided to back Venti rather than a robotaxi startup.
“The Venti was a great first step into autonomous driving,” said Arunas Chesonis, managing partner at Safar.
While the logistics may not be as difficult as with robotaxis, Venti's efforts in such a large port in Singapore were a complex endeavor, Chesonis said.
“PSA didn't acquire their first customer the easiest,” he says. “They grabbed the tiger by the tail in a large, demanding organization. And what's even more impressive is that they actually succeeded.”
Thomas Lee can be contacted at [email protected].
