SafeAI is on a mission to automate mining and construction

SafeAI's retrofit approach enables companies to upgrade their existing vehicles, lowering the barrier to entry for autonomous deployments.

The company is currently focused on the mining and construction industries. Still, it can potentially automate almost any industry that relies on large vehicles of all shapes and sizes. 

"We directly go to these companies, take their existing vehicles, and when you say vehicles, we are talking about massive trucks, 200-, 300-, 400-ton trucks, those are we take this vehicle, we retrofit a bunch of sensors and technologies if you will and give it back to them. And these are fully autonomous. This means no remote control, human operator, or human oversight whatsoever," explained Bibhrajit.

Moreover, the retrofit process is relatively quick, considering the size and complexity of the vehicles involved.

"So, usually what happens is set a send a team of, you know, engineers and operators, and they go there in about six weeks they will turn around 30 trucks to make it fully autonomous," Bibhrajit noted.

SafeAI's system bypasses cabin controls and taps directly into the vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU). As Bibhrajit explains, the entire retrofit system is also entirely "fuel agnostic," meaning that any vehicle type, in theory, could be converted using SafeAI's innovative system.

There is a "use by date" of sorts for potential vehicles, however, as Bibhrajit described. It is usually only cost-effective to do so for vehicles less than 15 to 20 years old. Beyond that, the anticipated maintenance costs of the vehicle probably mean it is too near the end of its life.

From cradle-to-grave automation

Within this podcast, Bibrajit also gave us a glimpse into a future where the cradle-to-grave lifecycle of many products could, in theory, be fully automated, freeing human beings from the drudgery of manual jobs in fields like mining, construction, and delivery. 

As Bibhrajit highlighted, it could be possible to have the entire cradle-to-grave lifecycle of a product entirely automated. From the raw material extraction to the factory floor and delivery to your door, automated machines could, literally and figuratively, do the heavy lifting.

Like many other aspects of automation in industry, this would greatly free humans from laborious, often dangerous tasks. The potential here is enormous if enough industries take up what SafeAI offers.