Skip to main content

Self-driving truck company wants to test without ever using public roads

There are many technology races going on in the world today, including private space exploration, electric cars, and self-driving vehicles. The self-driving competition has recently extended to autonomous trucks, and unbeknownst to many, drivers are already sharing the road with these test mules, albeit with humans usually on board in case something goes wrong.

The people at Ike Robotics have a different approach to using public highways. In a 90-page self-assessment safety report Ike filed with the NHTSA, Ike describes a series of simulations and private track tests to get the company’s trucks to a level safe enough to merit public road use. Of the 16 of these safety reports that have been filed by different companies, Ike Robotics is the first to indicate it will refrain from any testing on public roads.

Recommended Videos

Several competitors are already making test runs without even having a human on board; one uses the Florida Turnpike and another is hauling mail between Dallas, Texas, and points in Arizona. Ike has trucks on the roads between San Francisco and Arizona, but they are manually driven, used to collect data and form scenarios for simulation. Ike believes testing simulations will yield the best results, using data taken from public roadways.

Ike has been making all of its testing and data gathering public in an effort to be transparent to the public. On its website it lists a complete inventory of its test fleet, license plate numbers, and VIN numbers of the tractor rig.  Ike has also posted a map of all the roads that the manually driven fleet travels as well as safety and compliance scores from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Ike feels a transparent approach to sharing test information is the best way to encourage the public to trust the technology, and agree to share the road with driverless vehicles.

Ike will eventually test on public roads, but it intends to wring every ounce of information out of its current methods so as to minimize risk and maintain the highest testing standards.

While the scientific world looks to the stars and private space races and a driven desire to put a human on Mars may be the more interesting race will be to see who can make our highways safer right here on Earth.

John Elkin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Worked for many off road and rally and sports car publications throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Decided to go look for a…
MIT is teaching self-driving cars how to psychoanalyze humans on the road
mit algorithm predict drivers personality car driver behind wheel

In March 2004, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) organized a special Grand Challenge event to test out the promise -- or lack thereof -- of current-generation self-driving cars. Entrants from the world's top A.I. labs competed for a $1 million prize; their custom-built vehicles trying their best to autonomously navigate a 142-mile route through California’s Mojave Desert. It didn’t go well. The “winning” team managed to travel just 7.4 miles in several hours before shuddering to a halt. And catching fire.

A decade-and-a-half, a whole lot has changed. Self-driving cars have successfully driven hundreds of thousands of miles on actual roads. It’s non-controversial to say that humans will almost certainly be safer in a car driven by a robot than they are in one driven by a human. However, while there will eventually be a tipping point when every car on the road is autonomous, there’s also going to be a messy intermediary phase when self-driving cars will have to share the road with human-driven cars. You know who the problem parties are likely to be in this scenario? That’s right: the fleshy, unpredictable, sometimes-cautious, sometimes-prone-to-road-rage humans.

Read more
Lyft’s self-driving car-testing program is racking up the miles
lyft car

Lyft is planning a significant expansion of its autonomous car testing program. The company is opening a new testing facility, adding vehicles to its fleet, and racking up more test miles. Like rival Uber, Lyft believes self-driving cars are the future of ridesharing.

Lyft's self-driving cars are now driving four times as many miles per quarter in autonomous mode as they were six months ago, Luc Vincent, Lyft's executive vice president of autonomous driving, wrote in a blog post. The company currently gives rides in test vehicles to employees, and the number of routes where these rides are available has tripled in the past year, Vincent wrote.

Read more
The Nissan Rogue is joining the plug-in hybrid club in 2025
nissan rogue hybrid 2025 2024

It might have taken a while, and slumping sales of its most popular SUV, but Nissan has finally taken the step to offer hybrid vehicles in the U.S. The Japanese automaker will add a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain to the 2026 Rogue compact SUV, which should be available stateside sometime next year, Nissan Americas chief planning officer Ponz Pandikuthira told Automotive News.A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) typically runs on electric power until its battery is almost depleted, at which point it automatically switches over to using a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine. The battery can be recharged conventionally from the outside or through regenerative braking.
While Nissan has been offering popular fully electric vehicles (EVs) such as the Leaf and the Ariya for years, it has surprised many by not joining the hybrid bandwagon, especially for the Rogue. Competitors such as the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V, which do provide the part-fuel, part-electric power capacity, have seen their sales surging. Meanwhile, sales of the Rogue have slumped this year.
That’s why Nissan is partnering with Mitsubishi to start offering its first-ever electrically assisted car in the U.S. next year.
According to the Automotive News report, the Rogue will be outfitted with a similar powertrain found in the Mitsubishi Outlander. In that model, a 2.4-liter gas engine powers the front wheels, while two electric motors create an all-wheel drive system that can either work on its own or in conjunction with the gas engine. As the Outlander is able to deliver 248 horsepower, that would make the Rogue PHEV more powerful than the existing model’s 201 hp. The Outlander is also rated for 38 miles of electric driving by the EPA.
In addition, Nissan is planning to bring its non-plug-in, e-Power series hybrid technology to the U.S. in 2026. This technology, already available outside the U.S., also uses electric motors to power the wheels while using the gas engine to charge the battery.

Read more