Who Owns the Driverless Truck?
The rise of subscription services online to ensure a steady stream of income for companies without needing to innovate, most notably with Adobe’s Photoshop opting to charge users a monthly fee, may just be coming to the autonomous trucking revolution before it even gets on the road.
Details
Don Burnette, founder and chief executive of Kodiak Robotics, said something very interesting in an announcement regarding providing some early autonomous trucks to Atlas Energy Solutions.
“Once Atlas takes delivery of the Kodiak-equipped trucks, they will operate them with our support. We will provide our technology to Atlas via a driver-as-a-service licensing agreement as well as operational support services, including remote monitoring from our operations center in Lancaster, Texas.”
This statement explains Kodiak’s business model in a not-so-discreet way: they plan to charge for autonomous use after the initial sale. Whether the truck will still be operable by a human driver should the trucking company that purchased the truck (if the company can purchase the trucks at all) stop paying for the self-driving service is still to be seen.
It also creates a very interesting dynamic about liability: one of the greatest obstacles stopping autonomous vehicles in general is the insurance issue, who exactly is at fault if a truck fails to see a pedestrian? If the company retains ownership of the self-driving technology, it would only be fair that they are liable should the system go awry.
Conclusion
The most likely outcome will be two options for trucking companies: either the business can buy the truck and technology outright for full ownership and have to maintain the vehicle and liability, or the company will subscribe to the service and, at a higher total lifetime cost, not have to deal with all the responsibilities of self-driving technology. It is very similar to buying a truck versus leasing a truck, and which one would work for your company depends on preference.
Currently, TopMark Funding has no stated plans for autonomous vehicle financing, but depending on how the cards play out, it is a possibility once it gains an established foothold in the market.
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