By the end of next year, zero-emissions trucks produced by Nkola will be roaming streets in the U.S. with an advanced driver assistance system designed by a company you’ve probably never heard of.
The trucking company, which has generated plenty of headlines in recent years for all the wrong reasons, has partnered with artificial intelligence company Plus to use its next-generation safety system, dubbed PlusDrive.
The PlusDrive system is said to offer features far more advanced than lane keeping and automatic emergency braking and can keep a vehicle centered in its lane while also handling lane charges, mergers, stop-and-go traffic, and nudging. The system uses an advanced sensor suite with multiple cameras, short-range radar, and LiDAR.
Read: Nikola’s Upcoming Tre FCEV Truck Eligible For Over $300,000 In Incentives
Nikola says that with the system, the Tre BEV and hydrogen trucks will be able to detect vehicles in their blind spots and work in all traffic conditions, including loading docks. It will also continually monitor and highlight pedestrians around the vehicle to the driver.
“The enhanced driver assistance features are yet another differentiator of Nikola’s premium driver experience for our customers,” Nikola president and chief executive Michael Lohscheller explained. “We are one of the first OEMs to offer 100% electric steering paired with the ZF EBS braking system. This base technology in all our vehicles, combined with Nikola’s own internally developed vehicle controls, over-the-air updates and vehicle security can enable the integration of these advanced sensors and the realization of the PlusDrive safety system from Plus.”
PGT Trucking and Christenson Transportation will pilot test the first Nikola trucks equipped with the PlusDrive system in late 2023. Before this, Nikola will demonstrate its PlusDrive-powered Tre BEV during ride-alongs at the Technology and Maintenance Council Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition running in Orlando from February 27 to March 1, 2023.
“We are proud to support a zero-emission future and provide the underlying safety system behind Nikola’s enhanced driver assistance features,” Plus chief executive and co-founder, David Liu, added. “The proven commercial readiness of our highly automated solution PlusDrive accelerates the deployment for our partners and sets a new bar for safety and sustainability for the trucking industry.”
