Plus and Cummins in new initiative for autonomous natural gas fuelled trucks
By Jim Gibbins - 1st May 2021
USA - Plus (formerly Plus.ai) of Cupertino, California, a developer of self-driving truck technology, has announced a new initiative with engine manufacturer, Cummins Inc of Columbus, Indiana, to develop the industry’s first driver-in, supervised autonomous trucks powered by natural gas. The compressed natural gas engines provided by Cummins have been certified to near zero emissions, reducing smog-forming emissions by 90% compared to current EPA standards for nitrogen oxide air pollutants. Trucks powered by Cummins and integrated with the Plus autonomous driving system are claimed to be more fuel efficient due to Plus’s AI-enabled fuel optimisation algorithms and Cummins powertrain features.
The initiative aims to bring to market natural gas supervised autonomous trucks in 2022 and provide fleets an evolutionary path to quickly meet their emissions-reduction and corporate sustainability goals.
