HIGH PROFILE
SafeAI : bringing autonomy 2.0 to mining
Paul Moore talked to SafeAI ’ s Brenton Welford , VP Business Development , and David Prusinski , Chief Revenue Officer about its autonomous mining solutions – the journey so far , and what makes its system and strategy stand out
California-based SafeAI is evolving fast from a young start-up founded in Silicon Valley in 2017 to an increasingly well-known company putting down global roots in major mining markets and signing important partnership deals with relevant companies . These have included an agreement with OTR tyre major Goodyear to incorporate tyre intelligence into the programming of autonomous heavy equipment vehicles , and a partnership with Japanese construction group Obayashi to create autonomous construction sites , beginning with a pilot program in the US .
In January 2021 , SafeAI announced a new office in Perth , Australia and welcomed three specialists in autonomous mining to that location , focused on leading its rapidly-growing mining division in that part of the world . Most recently in June 2021 SafeAI secured $ 21 million in funding led by transformative technology investor Builders VC . The new capital will be used to advance the company ’ s open and interoperable autonomous technology through accelerated deployment and support , and fuel global expansion to meet rising demand for autonomous heavy equipment .
Welford told IM : “ We ’ re a VC funded company that is growing fast , and autonomous mining is our central focus . We are looking at haulage in mining and retrofitting our solution not just to the largest mining trucks , but also to smaller class trucks and other mining vehicles – this includes smaller trucks that might be used for other duties like stockpile work or earthmoving – in the case of Cat this might include the 773 , 775 and 777 models plus others of a similar class from Komatsu , Hitachi etc . Then you have all the ADTs , water carts , off highway haulers with side-tipping trailers , and others which remain untouched by autonomy . So , we want to extend autonomous technology to all fleet beyond the primary overburden and ore fleets . This opens up autonomy to second tier miners , and contractors
SafeAI ’ s David Prusinski , Chief Revenue Officer ( left ) and Brenton Welford , VP Business Development ( right )
In June 2021 SafeAI secured $ 21 million in funding led by transformative technology investor Builders VC
( who may use smaller class machines , or mixed fleets , as their primary fleets ) as well as larger quarry operators – both of which have not been a focus for the autonomy majors .”
He points out that autonomous trucks currently operating , both “ new ” and retrofit , still add up to less than 1,000 units – and are dominated by Caterpillar and Komatsu . The vast majority of these units to date whether new or retrofit have also been in the 200 t plus , sub-300 t payload class and dominated by just a few models such as the 793F and 930E . So why hasn ’ t autonomy taken off in the sub-100 to 200 t class trucks that represent the majority in terms of operating numbers ?
Prusinski adds : “ Part of it is cost – and not just the cost of the vehicle or retrofit kit – it also relates to investment in the network , mine design , and additional infrastructure that is required to run the AHS reliably . We need to factor in the cost of autonomy relative to mine life , and the time taken to pay off that initial capital investment . Many smaller mines also have a shorter mine life , and contractors can only rely on having their fleets in place for a few years . Our strategy at SafeAI is to fill that market gap .”
Prusinski says SafeAI believes it can do it cost effectively for these new vehicles and new markets by taking some lessons from the automotive market , where huge autonomy 2.0 advances have been made . The idea is that in mining , you don ’ t necessarily need to tie in the autonomy with a huge network investment for smaller fleets – you can use much more on-board data processing . Technology , including sensors and compute platforms , are now far more advanced and allow for more capable autonomous solutions , with a lower cost of entry and overall lower total cost of ownership . “ The mining and automotive autonomous journeys diverged in 2014 but there is a lot that can now be learnt from what has happened in automotive where the cost sensitivities are much greater . Our
114 International Mining | AUGUST 2021