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about highway safety and the role of the ware lets customers specify what kind
trucking industry. He was also recently of truck they need and select accessories
featured by Healthy Trucker as an advo- such as a tarp, a lift gate or protective
cate for spreading wellness messages gear. Pricing is determined by an algo-
to other professional truck drivers and rithm, and the software also figures out
industry employees. which trucker is best-located and able to
fill the job.
conVoy brIngs uber to Convoy plans to expand to other
truckIng areas in the next year.
Convoy, a Seattle-based startup, is
bringing the Uber model of connecting drones to tAke on
drivers and customers with mobile tech- InfrAstructure work
nology to the $749 billion market for English engineers at the University
hauling freight and merchandise. is probably the largest outdated indus- of Leeds recently won 4.2 million pound
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Salesforce. try in the country,” said founder Dan grant (about $6.5 million USD) from
com’s Marc Benioff and eBay founder Lewis, who left Amazon in February to the U.K.’s Engineering and Physical
Pierre Omidyar are among the investors start his own company. Sciences Research Council to create a
backing Convoy, along with Uber co- Convoy has been operating since national infrastructure for “self-repair-
founder Garrett Camp. April of this year, serving customers in ing cities,” where small robots can iden-
Convoy, which shippers can use to Washington state. Convoy has almost tify and repair everything from potholes
request a truck, get instant price quotes 100 trucks from pre-approved vendors to streetlights to utility pipes.
and track drivers throughout pickup in Convoy’s network, according to The team is working on three
and delivery, has already fundraised Lewis. Their aim is to compete with drone designs. One set of robots will
$2.5 million. The startup mainly focus- brokers who handle requests from ship- be responsible for “perch and repair,”
es on shorthaul trucking, usually one- pers, negotiate pricing and arrange for meaning they will perch, like birds, on
day trips between companies. “Trucking trucks to haul freight. Convoy’s soft- 

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