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Seegrid self-driving vehicles clock up over 1 million ‘safe’ hours

Seegrid, the leader in connected self-driving vehicles for materials handling, says its self-driving vehicles have exceeded 1 million production miles at customer sites without a single personnel safety incident.

Having travelled the equivalent of over 40 times around the earth, Seegrid’s vision-guided vehicles (VGVs) have logged more infrastructure-free miles at customer sites than any other infrastructure-free AGV company.

According to OSHA, in the United States, someone dies every three days in a forklift accident and each year 34,900 serious injuries occur, making worker safety a massive factor in any factory or warehouse setting.

Seegrid says it was the first and only company to hit this 1 million accident-free mile mark. Seegrid self-driving vehicles move material for some of the largest manufacturing and distribution companies in the world, including Amazon, General Motors, Whirlpool, and Boeing.

“Seegrid hitting this impressive milestone demonstrates that workplace automation can be implemented in a safe and efficient manner across industries,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Robotic Industries Association.

“1,000,000 accident-free miles is a remarkable accomplishment considering the complex and dynamic nature of today’s industrial facilities, and it highlights the maturation of this automation market, which we expect to continue growing as demand for self-driving vehicles rises globally.”

One of the keys to Seegrid’s unblemished track record is its proprietary Vision technology. A combination of stereo cameras and perception technology allow its VGVs to see the world like humans do, says the company. Their eyes capture and build a detailed, 360 degree map of the world around them.

“Seegrid self-driving vehicles have reduced the number of miles driven by the team members who work in our retail support centres, allowing us to redeploy our folks to more value-added roles while improving overall safety,” said Joe Hurley, senior vice president of supply chain at Giant Eagle.

“The self-driving vehicles travel on predefined routes and follow all safety rules, creating an environment of efficiency and predictability.”