Coronavirus grounded the autonomous-vehicle industry, but data troves could be a savior

Brandon Moak felt as if a freight train had hit him. It was mid-March, and the cofounder and CTO of the autonomous- trucking startup Embark Trucks had been keeping tabs on the emergence of covid-19. As a shelter-in-place order went into effect throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, where Embark is based, Moak and his team were forced to ground almost all their 13 self-driving semi-trucks (a few stayed on the road moving essential freight but weren't in autonomous mode) and send home the majority of their workforce, with no idea how long it'd be before they could return. For safety reasons, autonomous vehicles typically have two operators apiece. That's a no-go in the age of social distancing, and leaders of autonomous-vehicle companies knew they'd have to mothball their fleets.