Locomation announced appointments for two new senior leadership roles within the Pittsburgh-based autonomous trucking startup company. The latest additions to the company's leadership team follows last month's promotion of Steve Kenner to take on Locomation's chief product and safety officer role.
Now, industry veterans Michelle Chaka and Ro Stoltzfoos join the company as the latest pair of directors.
Chaka will serve as director of safety assurance and standards. She'll oversee the company's approach to safety assurance, as well as lead the development and implementation of various safety elements that involve metrics, policies, standards and procedures, all of which are aimed at ensuring Locomation's AV products meet safety regulations and industry standards. She previously served as a division director at the data and analytics division at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Her career has spanned more than 25 years of combined transportation safety experience at VTTI, as well as at Ford Motor Co. and General Motors. She has a master's in automotive engineering technology from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University.
Stoltzfoos joins Locomation to serve as the company's director of quality, a role that will oversee the development of Locomation’s quality systems, risk management, process optimization, external-facing quality teams and technical training. Before coming to Locomation, she worked at Motional, another AV startup, as a senior supplier quality engineering manager. Stoltzfoos had a similar role at Uber ATG —the self-driving division of Uber Technologies Inc. that was sold to Pittsburgh-based AV company Aurora Innovation Inc. in early 2021 — and has spent over two decades in the automotive industry, including posts at Tesla Inc., Marquardt Switches, and ZF. She has a bachelor's in industrial engineering from Kettering University as well as co-op experience at General Motors and General Electric.
Locomation's primary product is its Autonomous Relay Convoy (ARC) technology, which is preparing for a commercial launch later this year. It can electronically tether two trucks equipped with its self-driving technology together, with the first truck serving as a lead that is controlled by a human driver, while the second truck follows autonomously as its human driver rests. The trucks periodically swap places throughout their trip to allow drivers to take turns leading and resting, which enables freight carriers to operate two trucks for up to 20 to 22 hours per day, a figure that's twice the amount drivers are permitted to operate individually under current regulations of no more than 11 hours in one 24-hour period.
“Locomation's human guided convoy system is the safest near-term way to get autonomous trucks running commercially at scale,” Stoltzfoos said in a prepared statement. “I couldn't be more excited to be a part of it.”
Locomation’s CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Çetin Meriçli offered his praise for the new appointments in a statement.
“Together Michelle and Ro will add a new level of depth and experience to our operation as we develop our Autonomous Relay ConvoySM technology,” Meriçli said. “With their leadership, we will continue our progress towards commercial deployment while prioritizing safety and quality in every aspect of our work.”
