Boston-based ISEE has launched an AI-powered autonomous driving system to enhance performance and safety in transportation and logistics hubs. The company also announced active, real-world implementations at global organizations Lazer Spot and Maersk – an investor in ISEE.
Founded in 2017, ISEE was developed out of AI research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Addressing the growing shortage of skilled and qualified drivers and ongoing safety and efficiency challenges, its technology enables flexible autonomy in machines so they can understand human decision making and deliver the versatility needed to automate operations seamlessly.
ISEE works alongside human distribution workers to enhance driving capacity, optimize throughput and improve predictability, resulting in safer and more efficient trailer load, unload and transportation in logistics hubs and warehouses, with the result that products get to where they need to go faster, on-time and at a lower cost. In fact, an ISEE customer saw wait time to accept a job decrease and overall efficiency in use of space increase by 30%.
“Unlike other autonomous vehicle solutions, ISEE AI anticipates unexpected behavior, flexibly adapts to any environment and works alongside human driven vehicles without disruption,” said Yibiao Zhao, co-founder and CEO of ISEE. “Our solution understands its surroundings and intuitively predicts other drivers’ behavior, enabling smooth vehicle-vehicle and human-vehicle coordination – keeping equipment and drivers safe. Our launch marks the beginning of our mission to build towards a future where autonomous machines can thrive alongside humans and easily and safely integrate into any environment.”
In addition to Maersk Growth’s investment in ISEE, Maersk, the world’s biggest logistics company, is also collaborating with ISEE on a number of projects to improve logistic efficiency and safety.
“Through their humanistic AI approach, ISEE has in just a few years achieved very strong performance and proof points for use cases in logistics,” said Peter V Jorgensen, partner at Maersk Growth. “Our joint warehousing pilots have validated how ISEE’s platform enhances efficiency and safety and we look forward to implementing these improvements to enhance our competitiveness globally.”
ISEE also announced a joint project with Lazer Spot, the largest yard operator of distribution centers in North America. The two companies will collaborate to deploy ISEE’s autonomous driving technology to increase driver health and safety, and improve transportation efficiency across Lazer Spot’s 400 international warehouse locations, where they operate more than 1,300 trucks for the world’s top Fortune 500 and CPG brands.
“The logistics industry needs to add supply chain resiliency and predictability. Compounded by the pandemic, there is urgency in our industry to find solutions that help enhance our warehouse employees’ safety and wellness,” said Adam Newsome, CEO of Lazer Spot. “By launching our pilot program with ISEE, we expect to gain the knowledge necessary to dramatically improve our throughput, avoid on-the-job accidents, and free up our skilled workforce to provide the management and oversight needed to increase effectiveness of our operations and maximize output.”