Robotaxis may still be a few years out, but there are other industries that can be transformed by autonomous vehicles as they are today. MIT spin-off ISEE has identified one in the common shipping yard, where containers are sorted and stored -- today by a dwindling supply of human drivers, but tomorrow perhaps by the company's purpose-built robotic yard truck. With new funding and partnerships with major shippers, the company may be about to go big. Shipping yards are the buffer zone of the logistics industry. When a container is unloaded from a ship full of them, it can't exactly just sit there on the wharf where the crane dropped it. Maybe it's time sensitive and has to trucked out right away; maybe it needs to go through customs and inspections and must stay in the facility for a week; maybe it's refrigerated and needs power and air hookups.

Like the yard trucks that Phantom Auto is going to put into use with its just-announced partners Autonomous Solutions, Inc and FANUC America Corporation. These productivity vehicles, which are commonly used at places like docks and distribution centers, move semi truck trailers around the yards so they can get loaded or unloaded according to schedule. Today, that means someone has to get in and drive each trailer to its destination. With the new Phantom Auto technology, they can do it on their own. The way Phantom Auto sees autonomous technology working in the near term is that the vehicles will be able to handle most of the tasks they need to do using their sensors and AI.