This newly released automated trailer-hitching system will hook up a tractor and trailer with “extreme precision”

A tech company has announced the release of a brand new automated tractor trailer hitching system intended to increase efficiency in truck yards everywhere. 

Outrider, a Golden, Colorado based autonomous freight yard technology provider, claims that the new tool will help autonomous trucks to align with trailers, back under the trailer, and attach the fifth wheel with “extreme precision.”

“Most autonomous trucking companies are focused on moving trailers down long stretches of public roads. Outrider is focused on moving trailers in distribution yards, where autonomous hitching technology is critical to automating the entire operation,” Outrider Founder and CEO Andrew Smith said in a release. “There is an endless array of slight differences in trailer position and configuration when a truck connects to a trailer. Outrider’s engineers have built groundbreaking technology that adapts in real-time to hitch to trailers of diverse heights, weights, and orientations.”

The automated hitching capability will now be a part of the company’s ‘Outrider System,’ platform – management software the monitors autonomous vehicles and site infrastructure, as well as allows the autonomous trucks to hitch and unhitch from trailers, connect and disconnect brake lines, interact correctly with loading docks, track trailer locations, and just generally manages all system functions.

Check out how autonomous hitching makes yard automation possible – first-of-its-kind tech from Outrider! https://t.co/jNYQZWUxDY#trailerhitching #autonomy #zeroemissions #outrider pic.twitter.com/u3YhEkLPqc

— Outrider (@OutriderTech) July 27, 2021