Point One Navigation, a leading provider of high-precision location solutions, announced a great new case study – Faction: Accelerating Autonomous Delivery with Point One. To read this case study, click here.
Driverless delivery vehicles won’t go mainstream until they are safe, reliable, inexpensive, and most importantly, profitable. Faction is working with Point One Navigation to develop the tech that will make autonomous last-mile fleets meet those demands.
In this case study, Faction’s CEO Ain McKendrick explains HOW and WHY they chose Point One for GPS location services and the company’s plans for the future.
Faction develops driverless vehicle systems for vehicle manufacturers and uses a combination of computer-controlled autonomy and remote human (TeleAssist®) operators to create driverless last-mile curbside delivery and logistics fleets. The company works directly with OEM manufacturers to incorporate its autonomous systems into vehicles. Faction is currently testing its systems on small electric vehicles for last-mile deliveries within busy city centers and suburbs.
Challenge: Making Autonomy Affordable
Creating true self-driving vehicles has been an industry challenge for nearly a decade. Most manufacturers use complex systems with LIDAR, radar, computer vision, and GPS to help their vehicles discern the world around them and navigate safely. Unfortunately, these systems are often expensive and difficult to train.
Faction created a different model that incorporates computer vision with accurate GPS positioning and teleoperators. Vehicles using Faction technology will “see” using standard video cameras and navigate using precise real time GPS data. The challenge, however, was finding pinpoint GPS systems that were affordable and scalable.
“Some GPS systems can cost tens of thousands of dollars,” said McKendrick. “They deliver the accuracy we need, but at that price point we can’t integrate them into affordable driverless delivery vehicles. We needed something accurate, but affordable to deploy on a large scale. Point One is very comparable to some of the more expensive systems out there, but at a better price point with excellent accuracy and reliability.”
