Partnership to Bring Automation to Service Vehicles

Specialty truck manufacturer Oshkosh has teamed with autonomous mobility and advance driver assistance systems developer Robotic Research to offer automated solutions in vehicles with set routes such as garbage and mail delivery trucks, as well as emergency vehicles such as fire engines.

The partnership will combine Oshkosh’s vehicles fleets with Robotic Research’s autonomous driving technologies, with intended customers ranging from the environmental to construction industries. 

The final autonomous-vehicle products are expected to reach commercialization in the next three to five years. 

“With this strategic partnership, we position ourselves for continued growth within these critical and groundbreaking technologies,” said John C. Pfeifer, Oshkosh Corp. president and CEO. “Together, our work will provide our customers with robust and functionally safe solutions along with a clear path to production that is unmatched in the industry.”

“Our companies have successfully worked alongside each other for many years and we are proud to further demonstrate the value our technology provides as we expand our solutions into the environmental service, construction, and emergency services markets,” said Alberto Lacaze, Robotic Research’s CEO.

The companies have collaborated since 2017, developing autonomy programs for the U.S. Department of Defense in a project that awarded Oshkosh Defense $49 million to integrate autonomous tech with its Palletized Load System vehicles. 

That same year, a U.S. Postal Service report identified several use cases for autonomous vehicles, and in March it ordered 50,000 AV’s from Oshkosh at a cost of  $2.98 billion. 

“Autonomous vehicles that are able to partially or fully drive themselves could become a reality within the next decade,” the report reads. “AV technology promises to increase safety, reduce fuel costs, and improve worker productivity. More importantly, it has the potential to change the nature of the transportation and delivery industries, and to spark new business models.”