Tectonic Exclusive: Overland AI Wants to Take Your Vehicles and Make Them Autonomous

By Erin O'Brien

What if you could take any vehicle and just, like, make it autonomous? Well, now you can. This morning, Overland AI unveiled an autonomy “upfit kit” called SPARK that can plug and play into pretty much any ground vehicle, from a Camry to a tank, and turn it into a drone.

This means that all of those pesky, manned trucks, tanks, and transporters the DoD has lying around could be transformed into totally unmanned fleets, all running on Overland AI’s OverDrive autonomous software stack.

“By integrating SPARK, the DOD and other government departments can transform their existing fleets into autonomous ground vehicles, rapidly and at scale,” said Byron Boots, co-founder and chief executive officer of Overland AI, in a statement.

Speedy quick: Overland AI COO Greg Okopal told Tectonic in an exclusive interview that SPARK is critical for a DoD that is trying to modernize and adopt more autonomous technology, while still making use of its legacy fleet. “It seemed like there was an opportunity here to get a [autonomous] fleet going very quickly,” he said.

Autonomy in a box: SPARK is pretty nifty. Its core component is a ruggedized, compact computer module running Overland’s autonomy software software that fits in most ground vehicles. There are add-ons to the system depending on whether the vehicle already uses electrical or electro-mechanical (“drive-by-wire”) systems.

• According to Overland, SPARK uses LiDAR and stereo cameras to see through darkness, dust, and storms. It also tracks movement via integrated GPS, IMU, and speed encoders.
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• Like all of Overland’s autonomy systems, SPARK works well in unmapped and unpredictable terrain. It uses sensors and imaging, rather than advanced mapping, to navigate.
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• SPARK and OverDrive work a dream in contested or jammed environments. “The very important thing about OverDrive is that it is built and tested to be run without a continuous comms link and without access to GPS,” Okopal said.
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• Overland says that vehicles equipped with its software keep ground troops and vehicle operators safe from risks including improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ambush.

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Eye on the prize: Okopal did not share a per-unit cost for SPARK with Tectonic, but said it was “strictly less” than building an autonomous fleet from the ground up. The company already has a SPARK contract to upfit ground vehicles with the US Army Sandhills Project.

In January, the company announced a $32M Series A led by 8VC and opened a new factory in Seattle. The company’s tech is DARPA-approved and is used by the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command, according to Overland’s website.

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