YMMV is joining many other Alberta technology firms working on solutions to greenhouse gas emissions. Our partnership with Lego City to develop an electrically powered transit system that is also autonomously controlled. For those not that familiar with the term, it is a five dollar word for software controlled rather than human controlled. We don’t like to use the term “driverless” at YMMV since the collection of software and sensors operating the transit vehicles represents more attention and monitoring of every meter of the transit journey. Most of us could not claim 3 hours of focused attention driving between Edmonton and Calgary and those are driver’d vehicles.
If you’re still with me after the commercial :-), folks watching the autonomous trains in our two test sites in Lego City may have noticed the trains don’t always stop in exactly the same spot. We initally suspected this was a software bug or faulty power cells but as the first few snow flakes fell the lights clicked on so-to-speak. High current batteries have different levels of available energy depending on the outside temperature.
The power cells for the trains are directly in contact with the elements so temperature drops can also case fluctuations in available power in a given time period. I will stay out of the math but when it’s cold the trains go little slower which directly affects how far they will travel in the same time period that was calibrated during the summer months.
“An all weather solution that uses distance traveled as an override is currently under development, in the meantime we are initiating a winter-wear program for the trains we are humorously calling Operation Frostbite “
Andy Lyons
There are a few supply chain issues to iron out, insulating the undercarriage of a large train is a big undertaking. At YMMV Industrial we do feel this is the natural evolution of solving engineering issues and a challenging environment like the Alberta winter climate is something we have plenty of experience with.
Great update, we have been getting some calls about whether the trains were safe since they were missing the stations. Do you have an update on the insulation testing?
Thanks for inquiring, and perhaps making this matter public is good to help keep the dialogue going. Electrification and automation take time to get right and get safe. I want to make myself available to anyone wanting to discuss safety concerns, email at the office is great but text can be faster, something we just rolled out for the support teams but I want to extend that to anyone involved in the trial as well as concerned citizens.
The main support number is 587-609-6200, I will monitor for messages intended for me and respond directly.
Thanks very much for the transparent response and commitment to resolution. I am confident the Lego City + YMMV Industrial partnership will pave the way for public transit throughout Canada.