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Highlight reel: 7 notable autonomy successes for Trimble in 2023

Published Date
Author Trimble Inc.

Much like the applications it serves, the growth of autonomy as a field and a future can be measured by the successes it brings about for industries. And for Trimble teams across the globe, this year charted trackable progress toward the next generation of autonomous advancements. 

  1. In February, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. announced it will leverage Trimble RTXⓇ technology as its high-accuracy positioning source, enabling the hands-off and guided freeway driving capabilities of the ProPILOT Assist 2.0 driver assistance system. Available initially on the 2023 Nissan Ariya, this capability will provide lane-level precise positioning in complex highway environments. 

  2. In May, the Trimble PX-1 RTX™ was announced, charting a path toward revolutionizing the commercial package delivery market for drone delivery. Enabling accurate and robust positioning and heading, it will empower a drone to navigate through whatever crosses its path, even in the most challenging environments. Bottom line, it will provide drone integration companies with more efficient drone planning, takeoff, navigation and landing. The PX-1 offers industry leading CenterPointⓇ RTX corrections and GNSS-inertial hardware that’s both high-performance and compact.

  3. In early September, Trimble and GM reached a new driving milestone, having surpassed 77M miles of hands-free driving on US roadways via Super Cruise engaged on GM vehicles. GM teamed with Trimble to develop a safe and reliable way to maintain in-lane positioning for hands-free driving.

  4. November marked the first successful test of a fully autonomous compactor leveraging Trimble technology. Taking place on a live site-C clean energy dam project in northeast British Columbia, Canada, where the machine completed 37 hours of compaction work, seamlessly working alongside a mixed fleet of compactors. Even smoke from area wildfires didn’t affect its successful mission. Data from all machines – both with and without an operator – was delivered using Trimble WorksOS Software, which was used as the system of record for all jobsite compaction data. 

  5. In early December, Trimble and Sabanto announced the integration of Trimble’s GNSS and corrections technology within Sabanto’s autonomous tractor/mower. In addition to enabling even more robust accuracy via Trimble RTXⓇ, this performance enhancement will provide farmers with correction-stream switching, enabling them to automatically switch from IP to satellite seamlessly for the best signal in any environment. 

  6. The Trimble ProPoint Go™ precise positioning engine received ASIL-C certification in December, supporting safety-critical applications for advanced driver-assistance system technologies and autonomy. When paired with Trimble RTX, Trimble ProPoint Go provides an end-to-end certified solution for lane-level vehicle positioning. 

  7. Looking forward, Trimble will soon introduce Full Field Execution (FFE), combining multiple features and technologies to help farmers plan by automating the navigation of the machine through the entire field. Specifically, it will enable greater efficiency, repeatability and reduced operational costs via more logical routes, speed control and optimized field coverage. Our recent demonstration in Germany using a prototype FFE solution enabled operators to successfully leverage the path planning capabilities used on our fully autonomous compactor. This tech will build on path planning to allow integration of machine systems, and create a reduction in maintenance costs via controlled speeds which reduce boom oscillations and potential damages. 

Developing the latest tech offerings to keep industries like automotive, agriculture, construction and mining ahead of the curve requires market experience, domain expertise and an appetite for disruption. You need a partner that’s driven to reach the next step and the next level in developing efficiency and productivity solutions. Whether it’s enabling AI, the Internet of Things or any other toolset, Trimble has what it takes to transform transportation and enable industries to work faster, smarter, safer and greener through 2024 and beyond. 

Stay tuned to see what’s next!