The AI That Drives Like Your Best Trucker | Pejvan Beigui, Konboi

What we talked about.

Sunny Ray talks with Pejvan Beigui, founder of Konboi, about building AI that drives like the best trucker on the road. Beigui explains how the company began with a full autonomous driving stack for trucking, then changed course after a fleet owner said fuel costs could not wait two years for autonomy. The result is a retrofit eco-driving cruise control that handles throttle and braking but not steering. Beigui, who spent more than a decade in physical commodities trading at an investment bank, describes the driver shortage in Europe, the thin margins fleets operate on, and fuel costs that make up 25 to 35 percent of transport spend. He shares early results that were worse than human drivers, then a recent test where a driver saw 5.4 percent savings over 450 kilometers. The conversation also covers running the system on a 40 watt computer, why retrofit beats waiting for truck manufacturers, the challenge of selling to skeptical fleets, and plans to bring the product to the US and eventually move toward full autonomy. Sunny also screen shares a video of a driver testing the system in France.

Konboi's Pejvan Beigui explains how an AI cruise control cut fuel use 5.4% and why trucking's biggest AI win may come before full autonomy.

The questions, and the answers.

Why trucks, and what problem is Konboi solving?

I previously worked on autonomous shuttles and factory vehicles, but they only drive a few hours a day. Long haul trucks can run around the clock, which makes the economics work. I also learned how big the driver shortage is. Europe is missing about 500,000 drivers, and the average driver is over 50, so automation has a very compelling reason to exist.

What did fleet owners tell you that changed the product?

One customer told me they liked our autonomy progress, but fuel was their daily pain and they could not wait two years. We were already saving fuel with eco-driving techniques inside our autonomous system. So we extracted that part and made it a standalone retrofit. About 18 months later, we are now starting to sell it.

How does an AI cruise control save fuel that a good driver wouldn't?

Drivers get mentally tired after hours of deciding when to accelerate or brake. Our system never tires, and it perceives the road, topography, engine and load, whether that is 15, 20 or 25 tons. We are not chasing 25 percent. We save one or two percent here and there, and together that reaches about 5 percent, which matters on thin margins.

Are you running reinforcement learning in a data center, or how does the system run?

It has to run on a very small amount of compute, so we cannot send it to a huge data center. The team spent a lot of time optimizing the eco-driving cruise control, separate from full autonomy, to run on a 40 watt system. That is one of the key challenges if you want a real product you can commercialize.

When did you see the first real fuel numbers, and what did they say?

About 18 months ago, and the savings were negative, meaning we did worse than the human driver. That is how you start. Recently a driver ran two identical loads on the same route, one with our system and one without. He saw 5.4 percent savings over 450 kilometers, and now he just presses the button.

Why does retrofit win over waiting for trucks with this built in?

There are about 6 million trucks already on the road in Europe that could be equipped, so time to market is short. We are working with truck manufacturers too, but their product development cycles are long. Even if I wanted it in their trucks next month, going retrofit first makes a lot of sense.

What is the hardest part of selling to a large fleet?

Fleets told me that every week someone shows up selling snake oil about fuel reduction, so you start with a handicap. Now we have real numbers and driver feedback showing fuel savings plus extra comfort and safety. We also do not own fleets or operate transport, so we do not compete with our customers.

What does a fleet look like when every truck drives like its best driver?

Some fleets tell us there is a gap of more than 20 percent in fuel efficiency between their best and worst drivers. Our promise is not to beat your top drivers but to lift your average driver to a high level. For a large fleet, that means hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of liters of diesel saved per month.