Experienced Safety Leaders Join New Gatik Safety Advisory Council
Gatik autonomous "Freight Only" trucks are coming to U.S. roads later this year.
Gatik, a key player in autonomous middle-mile logistics, today announced the formation of a Safety Advisory Council, which brings together a diverse group of industry experts to support the safe development and deployment of Gatik's autonomous technology. Gatik's Safety Advisory Council will exist as an independent layer of review beyond the company's extensive existing internal and external measures and processes, reinforcing Gatik's commitment to transparency, accountability, and independent validation of its autonomous solution.
Inaugural members of the Council bring a wealth of experience from both the government and private sectors, including former leadership from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and former executives from U.S. Xpress, SAE International, and the Toyota Research Institute.
Council members will provide strategic guidance to Gatik's Internal Safety Review Board on the company's enterprise safety approach, including safety culture, processes, protocols, technology, training, and partnerships. The Council will also play an important role in educating Gatik's key stakeholders by sharing information about the company's approach to safety with government agencies, law enforcement, safety experts, academia, customers, and the general public.
'Transparency breeds trust, and the establishment of Gatik's Safety Advisory Council adds yet another layer of independent validation to our rigorous and robust approach to safety,' said Gautam Narang, Gatik's CEO and co-founder. 'The inaugural members include some of the industry's most respected and trusted experts in transportation safety and policy, bringing more than 170 years of combined experience and expertise to help guide the implementation of Gatik's safety strategy as we roll-out Freight-Only operations at scale.'
Gatik's Safety Advisory Council Members
The five individuals chosen by Gatik cover a broad swath of expertise relevant to fielding autonomous trucks.
Safety across many facets of freight movement are represented in the new Gatik Safety Advisory ... More Council.
Mark Rosekind, Ph.D. - Dr. Rosekind was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the 15th Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), serving from 2014 to 2017. Prior to NHTSA, Dr. Rosekind served as the 40th member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) from 2010 to 2014. Dr. Rosekind was also Chief Safety Innovation Officer at Zoox from 2017-2022 and previously directed the Fatigue Countermeasures Program at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center, and was Chief of the Aviation Operations Branch in the Flight Management and Human Factors Division. Dr. Rosekind is an internationally recognized expert on human fatigue. Dr. Rosekind earned his A.B. with honors from Stanford University, his M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Medical School.
Significantly, under Dr. Rosekind leadership at NHTSA, the first USDOT 'Federal Automated Vehicles Policy' was published. This 116-page document put forth the Agency's stance on a variety of key topics. Most significantly, the SAE J3016 Levels of Automation were endorsed, and NHSTA requested a 'Safety Assessment Letter' from system developers which resulted in many startups 'lifting the veil' a bit in those early days. This move laid out a path which resulted in two additional USDOT policy documents in the subsequent Administration, which were pivotal in launching the push to autonomous trucks.
Jack Van Steenburg – Van Steenburg served the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) for 15 years, holding the titles of Executive Director and Chief Safety Officer. Before joining FMCSA he served in the New York State Police for 25 years and rose through the ranks of Trooper to Staff Inspector. He also served as the elected President of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and participated on their executive committee for a decade. He holds an Associate's degree in Criminal Justice, Bachelor's degree in Accounting, and a Master's degree in Public Administration.
Jane Lappin – Lappin is the co-founder and organizer of the Automated Road Transportation Symposium, and immediate past chair of the National Academies of Engineering Transportation Research Board Vehicle-Highway Automation Committee. Lappin recently retired as Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Toyota Research Institute and previously worked for the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. Lappin served as U.S. DOT secretariat to the trilateral US-EU-JPN ITS Steering Committee, and as the U.S. co-chair of the US-EU-Japan Automation in Road Transportation Working Group. Lappin studied sociology as an undergraduate at Boston University and earned an MBA from the Simmons College Graduate School of Management, the world's only all women's business school.
Eric Fuller – Fuller is the former CEO of U.S. Xpress, where he led the company from 2017 until its sale to Knight-Swift Transportation in 2023. Prior to becoming CEO, Fuller held numerous operational leadership roles across the company, building a strong foundation in logistics, operational safety, and team management. A longtime advocate for innovation, Fuller has been an early supporter of autonomous technology in commercial trucking and has served on multiple boards and in advisory roles for companies advancing autonomous and adjacent technologies.
Carla Bailo – Bailo is the past President and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), and is a leader in engineering and vehicle program management with 45 years of experience in the automotive industry. Bailo recently finished her term as President of SAE International and was previously the assistant vice president for mobility research and business development at The Ohio State University. She also has 25 years of experience at Nissan North America, Inc., where she served as senior vice president of research and development, and spent 10 years at General Motors. She has a MS degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Kettering University.
'This esteemed group of industry leaders have dedicated their careers to advocating for safer public roadways, so we're honored that they've chosen to partner with Gatik as we enter our next phase of rapid growth' said Dr. Adam Campbell, Head of Safety at Gatik. 'Our shared belief is that the future of road safety will be led by widespread deployment of autonomous vehicles. This means that Gatik's Safety Advisory Council is ideally positioned to guide and inform our approach to safety as we deploy thousands of commercial autonomous trucks in the months and years ahead.'
Establishing a Safety Advisory Council is part of Gatik's ongoing commitment to independent, third-party assessment of its technology. Last year, Gatik unveiled the scope of its Safety Assessment Framework for Freight-Only (driverless) operations across North America, by committing to launching Freight-Only operations at scale only once it satisfies the most rigorous evaluation ever performed on an autonomous driving system by independent third parties. As Gatik puts it, this industry-first initiative underscored their dedication to setting the highest standards possible for safety in autonomous trucking, and ensures that all key stakeholders, including customers, federal, state and local government partners, the first responder community and the general public have confidence in the independently verified safety of Gatik's technology and deployment practices. The assessment encompasses over 700 identified safety portfolios and will address the following key pillars of autonomous vehicle safety: organizational safety culture, engineering quality (functional, behavioral and operational safety of the self-driving system), cyber security, vehicle safety, and safety conformity to UL4600 and other standards.
Gatik notes that their team will be publicly sharing information on progress made towards completion of the Safety Assessment Framework prior to deployment of Freight-Only operations.
Logistics For Local Freight
Founded in 2017, Gatik AI is one of the stalwarts amongst the autonomy companies bringing driverless tech to real-world applications. The company is focusing on middle-mile logistics. In 2021 Gatik launched the world's first driverless commercial transportation service with Walmart. Gatik's medium-duty autonomous trucks are commercially deployed in multiple markets including Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, and Ontario.
Gatik is providing these freight services for Fortune 500 retailers, including Georgia-Pacific, KBX, Kroger, Loblaw, Pitney Bowes, Tyson, and Walmart. Gatik also partners with key industry suppliers including Isuzu Motors, NVIDIA, Cummins, Ryder, and Goodyear.
Advisory Councils Are Key To Deployment
Advisory councils are "de rigueur" for such a revolutionary technology as autonomous driving.
In 2020, Plus.ai formed an Advisory Board consisting of veterans of the truck manufacturing industry. In 2021, Aurora established an Industry Advisory Council to advise on topics including go-to-market and regulatory strategies. The Torc Autonomous Advisory Council (TAAC) was launched in 2022. At the time, Torc said 'the TAAC is comprised of key freight industry players who will provide strategic guidance to Torc as it integrates with the freight network and tackles challenges beyond highway driving.' Kodiak established a Trucking Industry Advisory Council in 2024, with members coming primarily from the trucking industry. Earlier this year, Bot Auto formed a Strategic Advisory Board, bringing in leaders across transportation, innovation, policy and finance.
Gatik's move is very much in-line with these earlier initiatives, but there's more. Only Gatik has established an advisory group focused specifically on safety. And apparently the Council has teeth, existing 'as an independent layer of review' beyond the company's existing measures and processes, which include independent validation of its autonomous solution.
It's hard to argue with an autonomy deployment approach which includes external validation to bolster and verify even the most thorough internal processes.
Disclosure: Richard Bishop is an Advisor to and/or an equity holder in the following companies mentioned in this article: Aurora, Gatik, Plus.
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