United Rentals Brings Autonomous Driving Technology to Rental Branches
Autonomous driving technology is coming to an equipment rental yard near you.
United Rentals Inc. has teamed up with California-based 5D Robotics Inc. to develop systems that can move equipment, such as scissor lifts, autonomously within the yard while avoiding objects and people. The system can allow multiple vehicles to follow a person or lead vehicle, operate in any weather conditions and even load equipment onto trucks for delivery to job sites.
“Seeing this reliable, safe, autonomous vehicle technology function in our rental yards has been an eye opener,” said Helge Jacobsen, vice president of operations excellence for United Rentals. “The [system] offers substantial opportunities to improve our efficiency and safety as well as provide new analytical and mapping tools to our own branches and eventually to our customers.”
United Rentals, based in Stamford, Connecticut, operates a network of 900 rental locations and ranks No. 23 on the Transport Topics’ Top 100 list of the largest private carriers in North America with a fleet of 1,420 tractors, 2,204 straight trucks and 1,484 trailers.
The company also said it will work with ZTR Control Systems and SiTech RTD to develop new systems and solutions for use in United Rentals facilities in the United States and Canada.
ZTR Control Systems, based in London, Ontario, has installed telematics capabilities on more than 60,000 pieces of equipment in the United Rentals fleet. SiTech has done research and development for vision-guided tracking systems. And 5D Robotics specializes in positioning and navigation systems for use in connected vehicles, equipment automation and commercial drones.
