Driving a feed truck on a farm means steering a 60,000-pound vehicle inches away from a concrete feed trough that would wreck the truck. While augers are shoveling food out of the truck to the hungry cattle below, drivers have to drive perfectly straight. “It’s just one of the most demanding jobs in one of the worst environments out there,” said Jacob Hansen, the CEO of ALA Engineering.
“And so food truck drivers, specifically, do not stick around very long.” Jacob Hansen, CEO of ALA Engineering, explains how the company’s automated feed truck works during the Nebraska Ag Expo on Dec. 12 at Sandhills Global Event Center.
ALA Engineering, a startup based in Scottsbluff that also has an office at Nebraska Innovation Campus, hopes to change the livestock industry with driverless technology. The company showed off its concept for a driverless feed truck at the Nebraska Ag Expo in Lincoln earlier this month. Hansen said the truck could help farmers deal with labor shortages and food costs.
The ALA Navigator is still being developed, but the company brought its technology attached to a normal feed truck to the Ag Expo. ALA Engineering’s driverless feed truck aims to help farmers who have to drive large trucks with precision to feed cattle. Once the truck is on the market, it would drive a predetermined route with lane limits.
The truck will also have sensors in order to see any obstacles on the road ahead while it is dumping feed. Hansen, who studied software engineer.
