A new safety platform from a driverless tech startup, free in-cab safety alerts in Arkansas and more

In this week’s CCJ Tech Shorts, C.H, Robinson deploys more AI; Rubicon sells its fleet tech business for more than $90 million; free in-cab safety alerts are coming to the state of Arkansas; and driverless tech startup Plus rolls out a new safety platform.
CCJ Tech Shorts is a weekly roundup of technology in trucking.You can read more at
www.ccjdigital.com/
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Contents of this video
00:00 Tech Shorts intro
00:30 Automated email quotes
01:16 Fleet technology business sold for $94.2 million
01:44 Free in-cab safety alerts
02:42 Next-generation safety systems
video transcript-
Using artificial intelligence, C.H. Robinson has automated transactions that many shippers still conduct by email. C.H. Robinson’s new technology classifies incoming email, reads it and replicates the steps a person would take to fulfill a customer’s request. For example, shippers often still choose to send an email asking for a price quote rather than log into a digital platform.
While the technology is replying to 2,000 customer quote requests a day, it opens the door to automating other transactions shippers and carriers choose to do by email. The large language model (LLM) that the technology uses can be trained to identify an email about a load tender, a pickup appointment or a shipment tracking update.
So far, 2,268 of C.H. Robinson’s truckload customers are getting the benefits of automated email quotes.
Rubicon, a provider of technology solutions for waste, recycling and fleet operations has sold its fleet technology business to Rodina Capital for $94.2 million. The fleet technology business unit will now operate as a private software company under a new name, which will be announced soon. Rubicon’s fleet technology unit is a fast-growing SaaS technology business that powers essential heavy-duty fleet operations in more than 100 cities.
Arkansas Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Arkansas Trucking Association (ATA) have collaborated to provide free in-cab safety alerts for commercial truck drivers traveling on more than 800 miles of Arkansas interstates and freeways. These proactive safety alerts, which give drivers heads up notifications of unexpected traffic congestion and other safety hazards, are provided free of charge to commercial carriers thanks to the Arkansas DOT, Arkansas Highway Police, with the support of the ATA, and delivered via the Drivewyze connected truck network.
Arkansas is the 10th state to offer these alerts, which provide visual in-cab messages such as “sudden slowdown ahead” along with an audible chime.
Arkansas provides a major corridor connecting California and North Carolina, with I-40 handling most of the traffic. Between Little Rock and Memphis, it’s estimated that more than 60% of the traffic consists of 18-wheelers. The state is also home to some of the largest trucking companies in the United States.
Autonomous technology company Plus has launched an AI-based software platform that enhances next-generation safety systems for all vehicle types with functionalities like high performance automatic collision mitigation.
PlusProtect include high performance AEB, expanded-coverage lane departure warning, traffic jam assist, predictive fuel optimization, self-calibrated sensors, and over-the-air updates. Additional options include GSR-compliant features and an easily-extracted event data recorder that can provide a recording of a vehicle’s operational data immediately preceding and following a safety critical event.