SafeAI builds first-ever electric, autonomous Caterpillar haul truck conversion
The autonomous mining experts at SafeAI have collaborated with Japanese Obayashi Corp. to build a first-of-its-kind, self-driving battery electric haul truck, paving the way for other companies to upgrade their existing equipment assets to reach their sustainability goals.
It’s important to note here that this really might be a “first-of-its-kind” conversion. While autonomous drive and electrification upfits have been implemented independently, the companies claim that is the first time an articulated haul truck has been successfully retrofitted with both technologies.
Obayashi sacrificed one of its Caterpillar 725 articulated haul trucks to the project, which was converted to electric drive and fitted with SafeAI’s latest autonomous technology. The program hopes to encourage fleet managers to consider retrofitting the assets they already own for electric operation instead of sending them off to a scrap yard. And they can do so, the companies claim, in a way that’s more affordable and environmentally friendly than buying new electric equipment.
Lowering the initial cost barrier to electrification is just one of the project’s goals, however. SafeAI and Obayashi are also looking at ways to reduce the fleet’s cost of operation – and, according to SafeAI, “marrying” automation and electrification creates compounded advantages that are otherwise hard to achieve as independent technologies.
One example cited by SafeAI was improved employee safety, since the autonomous component removes employees from potentially dangerous environments by removing the need to operate or refuel the haul trucks.
SafeAI’s autonomous electric Caterpillar 725 haul truck
“Just as our autonomous solution is designed to be open and interoperable to be applied to any make or model vehicle, we want our solution also to be powered by any energy source. This project is a step in that direction as it showcases how our autonomous ground vehicle stack is EV-compatible,” said Bibhrajit Halder, Founder and CEO of SafeAI. “I am proud of our latest endeavor of retrofitting a Caterpillar 725, marking the world’s first haul truck retrofitted with autonomous and electrification technology.”
Electrek’s Take
Caterpillar brought a ton (literally) of EV charging products to the CES show in Las Vegas earlier this month, and seems committed to developing a full line of electric solutions for future job sites – but the carbon costs of scrapping potentially millions of otherwise serviceable heavy equipment and ag assets can’t simply be ignored. Whether or not it’s better to simply “buy new” when an EV becomes available or to find ways to improve those vehicles’ emissions through conversion to biodiesel, the use of blended CNG or hydrogen combustion, or to convert them to electric using something like SafeAI’s retrofit package shown here is a bit above my pay grade.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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