Embark Technology Inc (EMBK) 2022 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to Embark Truck Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Adam Fee.

您好，歡迎來到 Embark Truck 2022 年第三季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）現在我很高興向您介紹主持人 Adam Fee 先生。

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Joining me on today's call are Co-Founder and CEO, Alex Rodrigues; and CFO, Richard Hawwa. Embark issued its third quarter 2022 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today. These can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.embarktrucks.com.

謝謝接線員，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。和我一起參加今天電話會議的有聯合創始人兼首席執行官 Alex Rodrigues；和首席財務官 Richard Hawwa。 Embark 發布了其 2022 年第三季度的新聞稿和演示文稿，我們將在今天提及。這些可以在我們網站 investors.embarktrucks.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

Please note, this call will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative about our views as of any subsequent date. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K filed on March 21, 2022, our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on August 12, 2022, and other documents filed with the SEC from time to time.

請注意，本次電話會議將包括基於當前預期和假設的前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受風險和不確定因素的影響。這些陳述僅反映我們今天的觀點，不應被視為代表我們在任何後續日期的觀點。我們沒有義務根據新信息或未來事件修改或公開發布對這些前瞻性陳述的任何修改結果。這些陳述受各種風險和不確定性的影響，這些風險和不確定性可能導致實際結果與預期存在重大差異。請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，包括我們於 2022 年 3 月 21 日提交的 10-K 表格年度報告、我們於 2022 年 8 月 12 日提交的 10-Q 表格季度報告以及不時向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件時間。

We will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Embark's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. These additional disclosures regarding the non-GAAP financial measures in today's press release and our filings with the SEC are posted on our company's Investor Relations website. Finally, we are recording today's call, and we'll make the recording available this evening also on our website. I would now like to turn the call over to Alex. Thank you, Adam.

我們將討論非 GAAP 財務指標，我們認為這些指標可作為 Embark 業績的補充指標。這些非 GAAP 措施應作為 GAAP 結果的補充，而不是替代或孤立於 GAAP 結果。今天的新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中有關非 GAAP 財務措施的額外披露已發佈在我們公司的投資者關係網站上。最後，我們正在錄製今天的電話會議，今晚我們也會在我們的網站上提供錄音。我現在想把電話轉給亞歷克斯。謝謝你，亞當。

Good morning, everyone. I'm excited to provide our last quarterly update in 2022 and walk through what we said we would deliver on, how we have delivered on it and how these milestones set the stage for our progress in 2023.

大家，早安。我很高興提供我們在 2022 年的最後一個季度更新，並介紹我們所說的我們將實現的目標、我們如何實現它以及這些里程碑如何為我們在 2023 年的進展奠定基礎。

Before I get into those updates, on Slide 3, I want to take a minute to talk about our truck teams here at Embark. In September, Embark celebrated National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, recognizing the around the clock contributions of our safety drivers and AV operators. At Embark, we deeply value safety and our people. Embark safety drivers are some of the most experienced truckers in the industry with an average of over 20 years of experience and over 1 million miles per person operating big rigs. Our truck team's knowledge and experience are paramount to Embark's perfect safety record as reported this past June by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For those not familiar, a truck team consists of a safety driver and an AV operator. The safety driver is focused on the truck and on the road, while the AV operator is in the passenger seat or now sometimes remote. The role of the operator is to monitor the AV system, advise the safety driver on performance and continuously capture feedback on the system to relay back to engineering. This company-wide collaboration between the truck teams and our world-class engineering team is paramount to building the software required to ultimately deploy commercial autonomous trucks safely. The underlying theme is always safety first.

在我進入這些更新之前，在幻燈片 3 上，我想花一點時間談談我們在 Embark 的卡車團隊。 9 月，Embark 慶祝了全國卡車司機感謝週，表彰了我們的安全司機和 AV 操作員的全天候貢獻。在 Embark，我們非常重視安全和我們的員工。 Embark 安全司機是業內最有經驗的卡車司機，平均擁有超過 20 年的經驗，每人操作大型鑽機的里程超過 100 萬英里。正如美國國家公路交通安全管理局今年 6 月所報告的那樣，我們卡車團隊的知識和經驗對於 Embark 的完美安全記錄至關重要。對於那些不熟悉的人，卡車團隊由一名安全駕駛員和一名 AV 操作員組成。安全駕駛員專注於卡車和道路，而 AV 操作員則在乘客座位上或現在有時處於遠程位置。操作員的職責是監控 AV 系統，就性能向安全駕駛員提出建議，並持續捕獲系統反饋以反饋給工程人員。卡車團隊和我們世界一流的工程團隊之間在全公司範圍內的協作對於構建最終安全部署商用自動駕駛卡車所需的軟件至關重要。基本主題始終是安全第一。

While on the topic of safety, I also want to highlight one other recent development, which further underscores our commitment to having a world-class safety organization. Last month, we were very excited to welcome Peter James as our new Head of Systems Engineering and Safety. Peter most recently worked for over 4 years at Outrider, and prior to that, spent nearly a decade working on deploying autonomous trucks for the Department of Defense, while working at Lockheed Martin and others. In Embark, Peter will leverage his experience and expertise, creating military-grade autonomous trucks to further enhance the reliability, manufacturability and safety of Embark's Autonomous systems, readying it for commercialization.

在談到安全話題時，我還想強調另一個最近的發展，它進一步強調了我們對擁有世界級安全組織的承諾。上個月，我們非常高興地歡迎 Peter James 成為我們新的系統工程和安全主管。 Peter 最近在 Outrider 工作了 4 年多，在此之前，他花了將近十年的時間為國防部部署自動卡車，同時在洛克希德馬丁和其他公司工作。在 Embark，Peter 將利用他的經驗和專業知識，打造軍用級自動駕駛卡車，以進一步提高 Embark 自動駕駛系統的可靠性、可製造性和安全性，為商業化做好準備。

Now turning to Slide 4. If you recall back in March during our first public earnings call, we laid out 3 primary milestones for 2022, and we have reiterated these milestones on each quarterly earnings call since. With this being our last earnings call in 2022, I want to walk you through how Embark is delivering on what we set out to do this year. I'll go into more detail on each of these throughout the presentation, but a quick reminder of our 2022 milestones. First, to deliver the first truck in the fleet of a carrier customer through our truck transfer program. Second, to demonstrate 2 of the 5 remaining capabilities in our technological road map, bringing the total capabilities accomplished to 13 of 16 by the end of 2022. And third, to launch the backbone of the Embark coverage map across the Sunbelt region. As I've said on prior calls, we set our objective to provide a way for you to measure and track our progress as we continue on our path to commercialization. We measure success by our ability to deliver on our stated objectives. And to that end, I'm thrilled with Embark's achievements so far in 2022. And happy to confirm that all these milestones are on track for completion, which is a testament to our team's focus, determination and consistency. We look forward to sharing next year's milestones in the coming months and more importantly, delivering on them in 2023.

現在轉到幻燈片 4。如果您還記得 3 月份我們第一次公開財報電話會議時，我們制定了 2022 年的 3 個主要里程碑，此後我們在每個季度財報電話會議上都重申了這些里程碑。這是我們 2022 年的最後一次財報電話會議，我想向您介紹一下 Embark 如何實現我們今年的目標。我將在整個演示過程中更詳細地介紹每一個，但快速提醒我們 2022 年的里程碑。首先，通過我們的卡車轉運計劃交付承運人客戶車隊中的第一輛卡車。其次，展示我們技術路線圖中剩餘 5 項能力中的 2 項，到 2022 年底，使已完成的能力總數達到 16 項中的 13 項。第三，在陽光帶地區啟動 Embark 覆蓋圖的主幹。正如我在之前的電話中所說，我們設定的目標是為您提供一種方法來衡量和跟踪我們在商業化道路上的進展。我們通過實現既定目標的能力來衡量成功。為此，我對 Embark 在 2022 年迄今取得的成就感到非常興奮。我很高興地確認所有這些里程碑都在按計劃完成，這證明了我們團隊的專注、決心和一致性。我們期待在未來幾個月分享明年的里程碑，更重要的是，在 2023 年實現這些里程碑。

Moving on to Slide 5. I will update you on our first 2022 milestone, the truck transfer program, or TTP with Knight-Swift. Let me start by giving a little bit of context. All trucks on the road today operate under what is known as a motor coach or MC number, which designates each truck to the operating authority of a particular fleet. Prior to TTP, we believe all testing models and pilots in the AV trucking industry operated under the AV providers MC number, not under the carrier or fleet. This means that the AV provider is legally responsible for the trucks operations, not the fleet or shipper. We believe this configuration for testing and running pilots is driven in part by the fact that these trucks are effectively prototypes that haven't yet achieved the maturity and reliability required for the technology developer to confidently transfer trucks to carry our customers with minimal maintenance and engineering oversight. To take that next step towards commercialization, we must go from prototype to creating a product that can stand on its own within a customer's fleet. This is exactly what TTP is doing. To our knowledge, TTP will be the first time that an AV technology provider has put its technology on a carrier-owned truck under the MC number of the fleet and which will have its day-to-day maintenance and operations performed by the carrier after training with Embark.

轉到幻燈片 5。我將向您介紹我們 2022 年的第一個里程碑，即卡車轉運計劃或與 Knight-Swift 的 TTP。讓我先給出一些背景信息。今天道路上的所有卡車都在所謂的大客車或 MC 編號下運行，該編號將每輛卡車指定給特定車隊的運營權限。在 TTP 之前，我們認為 AV 卡車運輸行業的所有測試模型和飛行員都在 AV 供應商 MC 編號下運營，而不是在承運人或車隊下運營。這意味著 AV 供應商對卡車運營負有法律責任，而不是車隊或託運人。我們認為，這種用於測試和運行試點的配置部分是由於這些卡車實際上是原型，尚未達到技術開發人員自信地轉移卡車以運載我們的客戶所需的成熟度和可靠性，只需最少的維護和工程監督。為了邁出商業化的下一步，我們必須從原型到創建可以在客戶車隊中獨立存在的產品。這正是 TTP 正在做的事情。據我們所知，TTP 將是 AV 技術提供商首次將其技術應用於車隊 MC 編號下的承運人擁有的卡車上，並且在之後將由承運人進行日常維護和操作與 Embark 一起訓練。

This transition to installing our AV technology on a carrier's trucks is truly unique in the industry. And in order to complete this successfully, we've taken a comprehensive 3-pronged approach focused on hardware design, software and operations. First, on the hardware side. Our TTP trucks include an improved AV kit with upgrades to critical hardware components designed to achieve reliability for everyday use and to be easily serviceable by fleet maintenance staff with minimal training. We also believe this is a powerful proof point of the embarked universal interface or EUI, and our OEM agnostic approach. We worked with Knight-Swift to select trucks from their order book, which happens to be a new brand for Embark. We then engaged that OEM alongside Knight-Swift and received the necessary information, which we required to ensure EUI could be integrated with that platform.

這種將我們的 AV 技術安裝到承運商卡車上的轉變在業內是獨一無二的。為了成功完成這項工作，我們採取了一種全面的三管齊下的方法，專注於硬件設計、軟件和運營。首先，在硬件方面。我們的 TTP 卡車包括一個改進的 AV 套件，升級了關鍵硬件組件，旨在實現日常使用的可靠性，並且車隊維護人員只需最少的培訓即可輕鬆維修。我們還相信，這是已採用的通用接口或 EUI 以及我們與 OEM 無關的方法的有力證明。我們與 Knight-Swift 合作，從他們的訂單簿中選擇卡車，這恰好是 Embark 的新品牌。然後，我們與 Knight-Swift 一起聘請了該 OEM，並收到了必要的信息，我們需要這些信息來確保 EUI 可以與該平台集成。

Next, we completed and validated the hardware integration on that new OEM platform on behalf of our carrier partner. I want to highlight this process because it really reinforces the differentiation of Embark Universal interface for 2 reasons. First, our experience with TTP demonstrates that carriers do have a strong preference about vehicle platform and will choose AV components to meet the requirements of those platforms. And second, this shows that Embarks platform-agnostic approach is further validated by efficiently being able to integrate our hardware kit on a new truck platform in only a couple of quarters. With the completion of component level verification and validation, or VnV testing, the next and final key hardware milestone remaining for the TTP program is the conclusion of track and climactic chamber testing at the proving ground.

接下來，我們代表我們的運營商合作夥伴完成並驗證了新 OEM 平台上的硬件集成。我想強調這個過程，因為它確實加強了 Embark Universal 界面的差異化，原因有兩個。首先，我們在 TTP 方面的經驗表明，運營商確實對車輛平台有強烈的偏好，並且會選擇 AV 組件來滿足這些平台的要求。其次，這表明 Embarks 與平台無關的方法得到了進一步驗證，只需幾個季度就能有效地將我們的硬件套件集成到新的卡車平台上。隨著組件級驗證和驗證或 VnV 測試的完成，TTP 計劃剩下的下一個也是最後一個關鍵硬件里程碑是在試驗場完成軌道和高潮室測試。

Second, software. In order to achieve the seamless integration required for Knight-Swift to implement our technology in their fleet, we made several key upgrades to the software that allows for a frictionless AV system launch experience handled by a single operator. In many cases, the AV system boot-up process is a multistep process, often requiring incremental staff and time compared to a human driver preparing to depart. Our system start-up process has been streamlined now to allow for the AV system to be operable in a comparable time to a human driver preparing for departure. Another software upgrade I want to highlight is our ability to automatically detect trailer presence and weight. It's one thing to test software with a single test weight load. But in a real-world setting, every trailer is a different weight, and our software is now able to adapt to this real-world scenario based on the weight of the load.

第二，軟件。為了實現 Knight-Swift 在其車隊中實施我們的技術所需的無縫集成，我們對軟件進行了多項關鍵升級，以實現由單個操作員處理的無摩擦 AV 系統啟動體驗。在許多情況下，AV 系統啟動過程是一個多步驟過程，與準備出發的人類駕駛員相比，通常需要更多的人員和時間。我們的系統啟動過程現在已經簡化，使 AV 系統能夠在與人類司機準備出發的時間相當的時間內運行。我想強調的另一個軟件升級是我們自動檢測拖車存在和重量的能力。用單一測試重量負載測試軟件是一回事。但在現實世界中，每輛拖車都有不同的重量，我們的軟件現在能夠根據負載的重量來適應這種現實世界的場景。

And finally, we're excited about our over-the-air data strategy, which reduces the data transmission needed to operate our AV trucks by approximately 95%. I want to share a quick anecdote on how our PDP program led to this innovation. About a year ago, during regular discussions with one of our PDP partners, who is also testing technology from another AV player, we heard feedback that the other AV player was asking them to install complex, expensive data transmission infrastructure at each of their existing sites to increase bandwidth and support the hundreds of gigabytes of data they were producing per truck per day. It was clear to us that this would be a pain point for our carrier customers and that asking them to install dedicated bandwidth infrastructure was not a solution. Using that carrier feedback, Embark has developed an intelligent data prioritization system that reduces our bandwidth needs by 95%. This brings total bandwidth needs to within the bounds of a typical industrial site. Instead of sending every data point all the time, our system now only sends data associated with specific topics or tags that are critical to technology development and safety. This is a step change improvement in data efficiency that allows our carrier customers more flexibility operating AV trucks on their own and at third-party sites. Our focused data optimized strategy is another example of how Embark Driver software continues to evolve from an R&D system to a commercial product.

最後，我們對我們的無線數據策略感到興奮，該策略將操作我們的 AV 卡車所需的數據傳輸減少了大約 95%。我想分享一個簡短的軼事，說明我們的 PDP 計劃如何促成這項創新。大約一年前，在與我們的一個 PDP 合作夥伴定期討論時，他也在測試另一個 AV 播放器的技術，我們聽到反饋說另一個 AV 播放器要求他們在每個現有站點安裝複雜、昂貴的數據傳輸基礎設施以增加帶寬並支持他們每天每輛卡車產生的數百 GB 數據。我們很清楚，這對我們的運營商客戶來說是一個痛點，要求他們安裝專用帶寬基礎設施並不是解決方案。使用該運營商反饋，Embark 開發了一個智能數據優先級系統，可將我們的帶寬需求減少 95%。這將總帶寬需求控制在典型工業站點的範圍內。我們的系統現在只發送與對技術開發和安全至關重要的特定主題或標籤相關的數據，而不是一直發送每個數據點。這是數據效率的一個階梯式改進，使我們的運營商客戶可以更靈活地在自己和第三方站點操作 AV 卡車。我們專注於數據優化的策略是 Embark Driver 軟件如何繼續從研發系統發展為商業產品的另一個例子。

And that brings me to operations. Embark and Knight-Swift have been working closely to develop and test the standard operating procedures for dispatching, monitoring and maintaining a commercial grade fleet of AV trucks. People often don't appreciate that AV trucking has never been done before, which underscores the importance of developing these standard operating procedures and honing them through real-world operations with leading partners. We're going deep into the nuance details to work out all the kinks and enable our frictionless customer experience. A few operational achievements I want to highlight are transitioning our driver-only configuration to Knight-Swift, integrating with Knight-Swift dispatch system and completing the initial maintenance program training. Our driver-only configuration is an AV operating configuration that allows trucks to operate in AV mode without needing a passenger side AV operator. Today, the industry standard for most AV testing, as I spoke about at the beginning, relies on having a person in both the driver and passenger seat. Using Embark driver-only configuration, which we were one of the first to explore back in 2020, each TTP truck will be solely operated by a Knight-Swift driver following an extensive Embark training program.

這讓我開始運營。 Embark 和 Knight-Swift 一直密切合作，開發和測試用於調度、監控和維護商業級 AV 卡車車隊的標準操作程序。人們通常不理解以前從未進行過 AV 卡車運輸，這凸顯了製定這些標準操作程序並通過與領先合作夥伴的實際操作來磨練它們的重要性。我們將深入研究細微差別，以解決所有問題並實現無摩擦的客戶體驗。我想強調的一些運營成就是將我們的純駕駛員配置過渡到 Knight-Swift，與 Knight-Swift 調度系統集成並完成初始維護程序培訓。我們的僅駕駛員配置是一種 AV 操作配置，允許卡車在 AV 模式下運行，而無需乘客側 AV 操作員。今天，正如我在開頭所說的那樣，大多數 AV 測試的行業標準依賴於在駕駛員和乘客座位上都有一個人。使用我們在 2020 年率先探索的 Embark 駕駛員配置，每輛 TTP 卡車將在經過廣泛的 Embark 培訓計劃後由一名 Knight-Swift 駕駛員單獨操作。

To put it into perspective, this is exactly how we envision the AV industry evolving. First, a truck team, as I explained at the beginning. Next, an Embark safety driver, now a safety driver that works for the carrier and then ultimately, no driver. The basic premise of TTP is to validate this hypothesis. And as I mentioned earlier, we have hardened and updated our hardware and software to enable this new configuration, which now enables no Embark staff in the vehicle. We've increased system stability and the need for monitoring or providing feedback to the driver or to engineering has been greatly reduced. These can now be done with automatic alerts, which we believe is the logical pathway to having a safe and reliable system that can ultimately operate with no driver. To support this configuration, integration with Knight-Swift dispatch system allows their dispatchers to share critical load details directly with Embark Guardian operations, which allows for more robust remote support.

換句話說，這正是我們對 AV 行業發展的設想。首先，正如我在開頭解釋的那樣，是一個卡車團隊。接下來是 Embark 安全駕駛員，現在是為承運人工作的安全駕駛員，然後最終沒有駕駛員。 TTP 的基本前提是驗證這個假設。正如我之前提到的，我們已經強化和更新了我們的硬件和軟件以啟用這種新配置，現在車內沒有 Embark 人員。我們提高了系統穩定性，並且大大減少了監控或向駕駛員或工程部門提供反饋的需求。這些現在可以通過自動警報來完成，我們認為這是擁有一個安全可靠的系統的合乎邏輯的途徑，該系統最終可以在沒有司機的情況下運行。為了支持這種配置，與 Knight-Swift 調度系統的集成允許他們的調度員直接與 Embark Guardian 操作共享關鍵負載詳細信息，從而提供更強大的遠程支持。

Finally, as I mentioned, we continue to work closely with Knight-Swift to create the maintenance program training, which is the first AV truck maintenance education program between a carrier and an AV software provider. While the initial training is complete, we expect this training to be ongoing throughout 2023, as we transition additional maintenance activities to Knight-Swift and focus on harvesting real-world learnings from operating the Embark Driver software in Knight-Swift's commercial fleet. As Knight-Swift prepares to receive the trucks, we will continue to run pilot tests on the system as well as take our Embark Driver training program to Knight-Swift drivers.

最後，正如我提到的，我們繼續與 Knight-Swift 密切合作，創建維護計劃培訓，這是承運人和 AV 軟件提供商之間的第一個 AV 卡車維護教育計劃。雖然初始培訓已經完成，但我們預計該培訓將在整個 2023 年持續進行，因為我們會將額外的維護活動轉移到 Knight-Swift，並專注於通過在 Knight-Swift 的商業車隊中操作 Embark Driver 軟件來收穫現實世界的經驗教訓。在 Knight-Swift 準備接收卡車時，我們將繼續對該系統進行試點測試，並將我們的 Embark Driver 培訓計劃帶給 Knight-Swift 司機。

In summary, today, our competitors are running under their own operating authority. Pending the trucks over to a carrier to own and operate is a significant milestone, which illustrates our confidence in the product and the maturity of the system. This is not a demo or a collaboration where we have engineers nearby to adjust the system if something goes wrong. It's truly handing over a product to a customer. TTP also further highlights the benefits of our close collaboration with Knight-Swift, enabling us to be asset-light and focused on building world-class software while leveraging the operational expertise of the largest carrier in the United States.

綜上所述，今天，我們的競爭對手都在自己的運營權限下運行。將卡車交給承運人擁有和運營是一個重要的里程碑，這說明了我們對產品和系統成熟度的信心。這不是演示或協作，如果出現問題，我們的工程師會在附近調整系統。它真正將產品移交給客戶。 TTP 還進一步強調了我們與 Knight-Swift 密切合作的好處，使我們能夠輕資產並專注於構建世界一流的軟件，同時利用美國最大運營商的運營專業知識。

On Slide 6, I'm excited to go under the hood on a few of the key hardware upgrades that we've delivered to enhance the reliability, serviceability and manufacturability of our AV system for deployment and commercial fleets at scale. Starting with the autonomous domain controller, we have been working with One Stop Systems or OSS, who specializes in building military-grade compute and storage solutions, focused on reliability and performance. Through our collaboration, OSS has customized the solution for Embark's autonomous trucking application, including attributes such as additional [reorganization], secure system monitoring and control and dedicated cooling technologies, all elements critical to the durability and reliability required for commercial operation of autonomous trucks. I would also highlight, as I mentioned during our last quarterly earnings call, having partners like OSS enables Embark to be asset-light, capital-efficient and focus on developing high-value software solutions.

在幻燈片 6 上，我很高興深入了解我們已經交付的一些關鍵硬件升級，以提高我們的 AV 系統的可靠性、可維護性和可製造性，以用於大規模部署和商業車隊。從自治域控制器開始，我們一直在與 One Stop Systems 或 OSS 合作，後者專門構建軍用級計算和存儲解決方案，專注於可靠性和性能。通過我們的合作，OSS 為 Embark 的自動駕駛卡車應用程序定制了解決方案，包括額外 [重組]、安全系統監控和專用冷卻技術等屬性，所有這些都是自動駕駛卡車商業運營所需的耐用性和可靠性的關鍵要素。我還要強調，正如我在上一季度財報電話會議上提到的那樣，擁有像 OSS 這樣的合作夥伴可以使 Embark 實現輕資產、高資本效率並專注於開發高價值軟件解決方案。

Regarding sensor integration, the hardware upfit for TTP features new individual sensor pods designed as independent assemblies and optimized for a commercial duty cycle. Each pod is designed to resist harsh environmental conditions at both the sensor and module level. The size sensor pods include sensors integrated into a custom bumper element designed to allow easy access to Embark sensors while retaining the serviceability of OEM components. This was an important consideration for Knight-Swift as part of TTP. The upgraded hardware modules have been put through a significant verification and validation testing campaign to ensure the necessary levels of safety, performance and reliability are upheld throughout extremes of shock, vibration, temperature, exposure and more. We're starting to wrap up system-level VnV testing, both at the track and in our internal pilots before handing over the trucks to Knight-Swift.

在傳感器集成方面，TTP 的硬件升級配備了新的獨立傳感器吊艙，設計為獨立組件並針對商業工作週期進行了優化。每個吊艙的設計都能夠在傳感器和模塊級別抵抗惡劣的環境條件。尺寸傳感器盒包括集成到定制保險槓元件中的傳感器，旨在允許輕鬆訪問 Embark 傳感器，同時保留 OEM 組件的可維護性。作為 TTP 的一部分，這是 Knight-Swift 的一個重要考慮因素。升級後的硬件模塊已經過重要的驗證和確認測試活動，以確保在衝擊、振動、溫度、暴露等極端情況下保持必要的安全、性能和可靠性水平。在將卡車移交給 Knight-Swift 之前，我們開始在賽道和我們的內部飛行員中完成系統級 VnV 測試。

Before moving on, I want to give a shout out to the Embark Operations Team, who's been working around the clock to complete the testing required for TTP. In the last 2 quarters, we have completed 4x the number of weekly AV tests versus 2021. This increase in AV test conducted is just one example of how our Operations Team is focused on accelerating the commercial and engineering progress here at Embark.

在繼續之前，我想對 Embark 運營團隊大聲疾呼，他們夜以繼日地工作以完成 TTP 所需的測試。在過去的兩個季度中，我們完成的每週 AV 測試數量是 2021 年的 4 倍。進行的 AV 測試的增加只是我們的運營團隊如何專注於加速 Embark 的商業和工程進度的一個例子。

Turning to Slide 7. I want to provide an update on our capability road map. Again, this is a very consistent slide that you have seen many times. Coming into 2022, we had demonstrated 11 of the 16 capabilities we determined were required to safely commercialize our technology. At the beginning of the year, we laid out our objective to demonstrate emergency vehicle interactions and invasive maneuvers this year. And then back in August, we successfully demonstrated the ability to interact with emergency vehicles on a public highway by completing a routine traffic stop without any driver interaction. Next up for Embark is invasive maneuvers. Enabling invasive maneuvers is an important step for commercialization because unexpected things will happen on the road. And sometimes drastic steering or braking is required in order to avoid dangerous situations that can be caused by unpredictable actions from nearby drivers. I'm happy to announce that we are on track to demonstrate evasive maneuvers by the end of the year, which would accomplish both of the 2022 items on our technology road map.

轉到幻燈片 7。我想提供有關我們能力路線圖的更新。同樣，這是一張非常一致的幻燈片，您已經看過很多次了。進入 2022 年，我們已經展示了我們確定的將我們的技術安全商業化所需的 16 項能力中的 11 項。今年年初，我們制定了今年的目標，即展示緊急車輛互動和侵入式機動。然後回到 8 月，我們通過在沒有任何駕駛員交互的情況下完成例行交通停止，成功地展示了與公共高速公路上的緊急車輛交互的能力。 Embark 的下一步是侵入性操作。啟用侵入式操作是商業化的重要一步，因為道路上會發生意想不到的事情。有時需要劇烈轉向或製動，以避免可能因附近駕駛員的不可預測行為而導致的危險情況。我很高興地宣布，我們有望在年底前展示規避機動，這將完成我們技術路線圖上的兩個 2022 年項目。

In addition, we've also been making significant progress on the remaining capabilities, such as inspections, which I'll now talk about on Slide 8. The traditional trucking inspection process has long presented barriers to operation of AV trucks. This is because the traditional commercial enforcement system requires all trucks to be able to stop at way stations and engage with our enforcement if not granted a bypass, which poses a couple of challenges for AV trucking. First, each way station is a unique, unmapped and unstructured driving environment, which differs from the on-highway environment. Second, roadside inspections at way stations necessitate driver involvement, which an AV truck could not easily execute. The solution was to remove the need for way station stops by conducting rigorous AV truck inspections before every trip.

此外，我們還在其餘功能方面取得了重大進展，例如檢查，我現在將在幻燈片 8 中討論。傳統的卡車運輸檢查流程長期以來一直是 AV 卡車運營的障礙。這是因為傳統的商業執法系統要求所有卡車能夠在中途停車並在未獲准旁路的情況下參與我們的執法，這對 AV 卡車運輸提出了一些挑戰。首先，每個車站都是一個獨特的、未映射的和非結構化的駕駛環境，這與公路上的環境不同。其次，在中轉站進行路邊檢查需要駕駛員參與，而 AV 卡車無法輕鬆執行。解決方案是通過在每次旅行前對 AV 卡車進行嚴格檢查來消除中途停靠站的需要。

We worked closely with Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance or CVSA, which represents state law enforcement leaders from across the country as well as leading national fleets to develop an enhanced commercial vehicle inspection standard for AV trucks. CVSA also developed a training course to qualify carrier technicians to perform autonomous truck inspections at carrier terminals. CVSA officially voted to adopt the new standard in September. The standard will require comprehensive inspection by CVSA trained technicians before each trip and at least once per 24 hours of truck operation. The inspection results will then be reported digitally to State Highway Patrol, allowing all pre-inspected trucks to bypass way stations, except in cases where there is an imminent hazard detected. This new inspection standard raises the bar for truck safety as 100% of AV trucks will be inspected by CVSA trained technicians daily to ensure there are no safety defects prior to departure. By comparison, in the existing process for conventional trucks, only a small percentage of trucks receive roadside CVSA inspections. And this happens at the discretion of way station personnel. In fact, during an enforcement blip when systematically evaluating the full set of trucks on the highway, CVSA recently found that 23.8% of trucks had out-of-service safety violations according to their 2022 internal road check results analysis. We're looking forward to providing more updates on the progress of this important capability in 2023.

我們與商用車安全聯盟 (CVSA) 密切合作，該聯盟代表來自全國各地的州執法領導人以及領先的國家車隊，為 AV 卡車製定增強的商用車檢查標準。 CVSA 還開發了一個培訓課程，使承運人技術人員有資格在承運人碼頭執行自動卡車檢查。 CVSA 在 9 月份正式投票通過了新標準。該標準將要求 CVSA 訓練有素的技術人員在每次旅行前進行全面檢查，並且至少每 24 小時卡車運行一次。然後，檢查結果將以數字方式報告給州公路巡邏隊，允許所有預先檢查的卡車繞過中轉站，除非檢測到迫在眉睫的危險。這項新的檢查標準提高了卡車的安全標準，因為 100% 的 AV 卡車將由 CVSA 訓練有素的技術人員每天檢查，以確保在出發前沒有安全缺陷。相比之下，在傳統卡車的現有流程中，只有一小部分卡車接受路邊 CVSA 檢查。這是由中轉站人員自行決定的。事實上，CVSA 最近在對高速公路上的整套卡車進行系統評估時的一次執法事件中，根據其 2022 年內部道路檢查結果分析，發現 23.8% 的卡車存在停運安全違規行為。我們期待在 2023 年提供有關這一重要功能進展的更多更新。

Turning to Slide 9. Last week, we launched the Coast-to-Coast Backbone of the Embark Coverage Map, which contains 9 transfer point sites near key cities across the Sunbelt, including new locations in Dallas, El Paso, Atlanta and Jacksonville to accommodate the freight volume in key markets and provide operational support for carriers and shippers using Embark powered trucks. We strategically selected these 9 transfer point locations to open crucial shipping lanes, which represent 28% of U.S. shipping volume in the Sunbelt for our carrier partners to begin hauling goods autonomously once Embark's technology is commercialized. The lanes in the expanded network cover 9.5 billion miles of annual freight, including San Antonio to Houston, Dallas to Atlanta and LA to Phoenix, which are some of the highest volume intercity lanes in the United States.

轉到幻燈片 9。上週，我們推出了 Embark Coverage 地圖的海岸到海岸骨幹網，其中包含靠近陽光地帶主要城市的 9 個轉運點站點，包括達拉斯、埃爾帕索、亞特蘭大和傑克遜維爾的新站點，以容納主要市場的貨運量，並為使用 Embark 動力卡車的承運人和托運人提供運營支持。我們戰略性地選擇了這 9 個轉運點位置來開通重要的航道，這些航道占美國 Sunbelt 航運量的 28%，以便我們的承運商合作夥伴在 Embark 的技術商業化後開始自主運輸貨物。擴大後的網絡中的車道覆蓋了 95 億英里的年貨運量，包括聖安東尼奧到休斯敦、達拉斯到亞特蘭大以及洛杉磯到鳳凰城，這些都是美國交通量最大的城際車道。

Our partnership with Alterra and Ryder were critical to achieving this milestone, allowing us to secure optimal real estate sites and support services. We leverage these partnerships to accelerate our deployment time lines, access superior properties for AVs and deliver infrastructure for fleet partners while doing it all in an asset-light manner. Partnering with Alterra has allowed us to access deep industry knowledge, a team providing nationwide coverage, a portfolio of over 150 existing properties and a fully discretionary fund to quickly identify sites and to structure flexible usage agreements that will enable Embark to scale across specific properties in alignment with our networks growing volumes. Upon commercial launch, our carrier partners will be able to operate without the need for driver brakes, which we expect will result in delivery times that are significantly faster than what is currently possible. According to Embark's analysis of government data, 41% of U.S. shipment miles in the Coast-to-Coast Coverage Map are on lanes that are longer than drivers can complete in a single shift due to hours of service regulations and which could be accelerated by an autonomous truck. Our proprietary patent-pending Vision Map Fusion or VMF technology is uniquely positioned to allow for utilization of the Coast-to-Coast transfer point network by our carrier partners. VMF minimizes reliance on numbers from HD maps by instead integrating real-time inputs from Embark suite of sensors, allowing the technology to navigate its environment, utilizing a light and easy to create and maintain map. This MapLite approach allows Embark to expand to new markets in a way where effort and costs do not scale with mileage. Establishing the Coast-to-Coast Backbone of the Embark Coverage Map was the third and final 2022 milestone that we laid out at the beginning of the year and is key on our path to commercialization as it provides our carrier partners the visibility they need to plan their deployment of Embark equipped trucks, improving the ecosystem's ability to rapidly scale following commercialization. And with that, I'll turn it over to Richard to discuss the financial details.

我們與 Alterra 和 Ryder 的合作夥伴關係對於實現這一里程碑至關重要，使我們能夠獲得最佳的房地產地點和支持服務。我們利用這些合作夥伴關係來加快我們的部署時間線、獲得 AV 的卓越屬性並為車隊合作夥伴提供基礎設施，同時以輕資產方式完成所有這些工作。與 Alterra 合作使我們能夠獲得深厚的行業知識、一個覆蓋全國的團隊、超過 150 個現有物業的投資組合和一個完全可自由支配的基金，以快速識別站點並構建靈活的使用協議，這將使 Embark 能夠擴展到特定物業與我們不斷增長的網絡保持一致。商業發布後，我們的運營商合作夥伴將能夠在不需要駕駛員制動器的情況下運行，我們預計這將導致交貨時間比目前可能的時間快得多。根據 Embark 對政府數據的分析，海岸到海岸覆蓋地圖中 41% 的美國貨運里程位於比司機在一個班次內完成的車道更長的車道，這是由於服務時間規定，並且可以通過自動駕駛卡車。我們專有的正在申請專利的 Vision Map Fusion 或 VMF 技術具有獨特的定位，可以讓我們的運營商合作夥伴使用 Coast-to-Coast 轉運點網絡。 VMF 通過集成來自 Embark 傳感器套件的實時輸入，最大限度地減少對高清地圖數字的依賴，從而允許該技術在其環境中導航，利用輕便且易於創建和維護的地圖。這種 MapLite 方法允許 Embark 以一種工作量和成本不隨里程數增加的方式擴展到新市場。建立 Embark Coverage Map 的海岸到海岸骨幹網是我們在今年年初制定的第三個也是最後一個 2022 年里程碑，它是我們商業化道路上的關鍵，因為它為我們的運營商合作夥伴提供了他們計劃所需的可見性他們部署了配備 Embark 的卡車，提高了生態系統在商業化後快速擴展的能力。有了這個，我會把它交給理查德來討論財務細節。

Thanks, Alex. On Slide 10, I want to highlight some of the key financial metrics that support our business progress. Our cash and cash equivalents were $191 million as of September 30, 2022. Our free cash flow spend for the quarter was $29.4 million compared to last quarter of $24.7 million. I'll provide a bit more detail on the quarter-over-quarter change as most of this increase simply reflects the timing of cash payments and not an increase in the go-forward run rate free cash flow spend, which is why we are also reaffirming our guidance for the full year free cash flow spend as provided last quarter. This brings us to our total free cash flow spend for the year to $74.1 million, which is in line with our expectations. I want to reiterate, we fully expected much of the free cash flow spend to be second half weighted in Q3 and Q4, which is why we are able to reaffirm our guidance for full year 2022 free cash flow spend to be $100 million to $150 million. And since it's a question we commonly get asked, you can think about our current run rate free cash flow spend of around $27 million per quarter, which is reflective of the midpoint of the guidance. And as you remember, we were able to bring down our original guidance earlier this year of $125 million to $140 million as we continue to adapt to market conditions, which highlights the benefit of our asset-light business model.

謝謝，亞歷克斯。在幻燈片 10 上，我想強調一些支持我們業務進步的關鍵財務指標。截至 2022 年 9 月 30 日，我們的現金和現金等價物為 1.91 億美元。本季度我們的自由現金流支出為 2940 萬美元，而上一季度為 2470 萬美元。我將提供更多關於季度環比變化的細節，因為大部分增長只是反映了現金支付的時間，而不是未來運行率自由現金流支出的增加，這就是為什麼我們也是重申我們對上個季度提供的全年自由現金流支出的指導。這使我們今年的自由現金流支出總額達到 7410 萬美元，這符合我們的預期。我想重申，我們完全預計大部分自由現金流支出將在第三季度和第四季度進行下半年加權，這就是為什麼我們能夠重申我們對 2022 年全年自由現金流支出的指導意見為 1 億至 1.5 億美元的原因.由於這是我們經常被問到的一個問題，您可以考慮一下我們目前每季度約 2700 萬美元的運行率自由現金流支出，這反映了指導的中點。正如您所記得的那樣，隨著我們繼續適應市場條件，我們能夠將今年早些時候 1.25 億美元的原始指導降低到 1.4 億美元，這凸顯了我們輕資產業務模式的優勢。

To provide a bit more color, the previously provided guidance earlier this year would reflect a run rate free cash flow spend of around $33 million per quarter at the midpoint. The actions we took earlier this year resulted in more than half a year of incremental runway, which is why we're very happy with our cash position today, given how we planned for market conditions earlier this year. When we revised our guidance, it was our expectation that we would be in a prolonged market downturn, and our view on this has not changed, and we continue to operate and plan as such. The swift action we took earlier this year has given us flexibility without compromising our ability to commercialize the business and deliver a product in 2024. As we discussed during the last earnings call, we want to really flex our plan to extend the runway, but also ensure we have the appropriate team to execute on the plan to deliver on our time lines. The progress we have made this quarter clearly demonstrate this is exactly what we have done.

為了提供更多顏色，今年早些時候提供的指導將反映中點每季度約 3300 萬美元的運行率自由現金流支出。我們今年早些時候採取的行動導致了半年多的增量跑道，這就是為什麼我們對我們今天的現金狀況非常滿意，因為我們今年早些時候是如何計劃市場狀況的。當我們修改我們的指引時，我們預計我們將處於長期市場低迷狀態，我們對此的看法沒有改變，我們將繼續這樣運作和計劃。我們今年早些時候採取的迅速行動為我們提供了靈活性，同時又不影響我們在 2024 年將業務商業化和交付產品的能力。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，我們希望真正調整我們的計劃以延長跑道，但也確保我們有合適的團隊來執行按時交付的計劃。我們本季度取得的進展清楚地表明這正是我們所做的。

I'll provide some metrics on the next slide to show how disciplined and consistent we've been on our free cash flow spend. But before moving on, I do want to talk through the increase in the quarter-over-quarter free cash flow spend and how to frame that in the context of a run rate number. Essentially, there was about $5 million of prepayments related to certain agreements that get paid in Q3 every year, but their expense over the course of the year. Also, we had some incremental expenses this quarter as we began to move employees into our new headquarters, which I should state is really cool. When you adjust for these items, we continue to have conviction based on what we know today on the run rate spend I discussed. Moreover, as you can easily extrapolate based on Q4 expectations, we do expect a higher amount in Q4. Hence, why we reaffirmed our original guidance for 2022. This also will not reflect the change in the expected run rate, but again, simply a timing consideration.

我將在下一張幻燈片上提供一些指標，以顯示我們在自由現金流支出方面的紀律性和一致性。但在繼續之前，我確實想談談自由現金流支出的環比增長，以及如何在運行率數字的背景下構建它。從本質上講，每年第三季度支付的與某些協議相關的預付款約為 500 萬美元，但這些費用會貫穿全年。此外，隨著我們開始將員工轉移到新總部，本季度我們有一些增量支出，我應該說這真的很酷。當您針對這些項目進行調整時，根據我們今天對我討論的運行率支出的了解，我們將繼續堅信這一點。此外，由於您可以根據第四季度的預期輕鬆推斷，我們確實預計第四季度的金額會更高。因此，我們為什麼重申我們對 2022 年的最初指導。這也不會反映預期運行率的變化，而只是時間考慮。

I'll talk more on the next slide around our discipline, consistency and focus as it relates to managing the balance sheet. But before I go to next slide, I want to summarize the key takeaways here. One, free cash flow spend and full year guidance is in line with expectations; two, timing of cash payments throughout the year resulted in some lumpiness, particularly in the back half of the year. However, it does not change full year picture or run rate expectations. And finally, three, we believe the current free cash flow spend and ability to focus and flex the plan is sufficient to advance Embark towards commercialization in 2024.

我將在下一張幻燈片上更多地討論我們的紀律、一致性和重點，因為它與管理資產負債表有關。但在我轉到下一張幻燈片之前，我想在這裡總結一下要點。一、自由現金流支出和全年指引符合預期；第二，全年的現金支付時間出現了一些波動，特別是在下半年。但是，它不會改變全年情況或運行率預期。最後，第三，我們認為當前的自由現金流支出以及專注和靈活計劃的能力足以推動 Embark 在 2024 年實現商業化。

Moving to Slide 11. I've discussed our balance sheet discipline, but let me put some metrics that really demonstrate what this means. As we've consistently said, having an asset-light business model provides flexibility to refine and define the key initiatives we intend to deliver on based on the resources available. This is why in Q2, we refined our plan to ensure we focus resources as we assume a prolonged market downturn. This chart shows the improvement already realized 2 quarters into focused hiring initiative, which I'll talk through shortly. We spent a lot of time talking about focus. It's very easy, particularly in markets where capital is easy to come by to get distracted, trying to do too much without being able to define the capital required doesn't work. This is exactly what differentiates Embark, and this differentiation is even more critical today given market conditions, but goes back to our founding and as part of our culture of being focused. This is why we've been able to deliver a leading technology in a very capital-efficient manner, particularly relative to competitors. And it's why we feel very good about the resources we have today to execute on our commercial plans.

轉到幻燈片 11。我已經討論了我們的資產負債表紀律，但讓我提出一些指標來真正說明這意味著什麼。正如我們一直所說的那樣，擁有輕資產業務模型可以靈活地完善和定義我們打算根據可用資源交付的關鍵計劃。這就是為什麼在第二季度，我們改進了我們的計劃，以確保我們在假設市場長期低迷的情況下集中資源。這張圖表顯示了 2 個季度已經實現的重點招聘計劃的改進，我將在稍後討論。我們花了很多時間談論焦點。這很容易，尤其是在資本容易被分散注意力的市場中，試圖在無法定義所需資本的情況下做太多是行不通的。這正是 Embark 的不同之處，在當今市場條件下，這種差異化更為重要，但可以追溯到我們的創立之初，作為我們專注文化的一部分。這就是為什麼我們能夠以極具資本效率的方式提供領先技術，尤其是相對於競爭對手而言。這就是為什麼我們對今天執行我們的商業計劃所擁有的資源感到非常滿意。

The self-driving space broadly is beginning to realize its insight. Certain business models aren't profitable. Certain organizations try to do too much and a lot of money has been spent without a product. This is not Embark. Embark is deploying capital against high ROI projects that we believe will result in economically viable commercial products. Alex will speak a bit more to this at the end, but I want to really highlight this intersection, not simply a great technology, but a great technology that has an actual commercial business plan. The chart on this page shows effectively our free cash flow spend per employee. Given the lumpiness of cash payments throughout the year, as I walked through earlier, I've used adjusted EBITDA minus CapEx as a proxy for free cash flow spend, which we present each quarter on our non-GAAP reconciliation tables. To summarize the key takeaways here, even as we've grown, we've had a fairly consistent spend for employee. This is important because headcount is our biggest spend, accounting for approximately 60% of our free cash flow spend. This is exactly what you see in Q2 and Q3 after we lowered our free cash flow spend guidance and implemented focused hiring. You can see a slight drop in our spend per employee. Lastly, I would highlight that we ended the quarter with 317 full-time employees. Doing a quick math based on the Q3 spend per employee, you can further extrapolate and triangulate the $27 million run rate free cash flow spend number I referenced earlier. With that, I'll pass it back to Alex.

廣泛的自動駕駛空間開始意識到它的洞察力。某些商業模式不盈利。某些組織試圖做太多事情，並且在沒有產品的情況下花費了很多錢。這不是登船。 Embark 正在為高投資回報率項目部署資金，我們認為這些項目將產生經濟上可行的商業產品。亞歷克斯最後會對此多說一點，但我真的想強調這個交叉點，不僅僅是一項偉大的技術，而是一項具有實際商業計劃的偉大技術。此頁面上的圖表有效地顯示了我們每位員工的自由現金流支出。鑑於全年現金支付的波動性，正如我之前介紹的那樣，我使用調整後的 EBITDA 減去資本支出作為自由現金流支出的代表，我們每個季度都會在我們的非 GAAP 調節表中顯示。總結一下這裡的關鍵要點，即使我們已經成長，我們對員工的支出也相當穩定。這很重要，因為員工人數是我們最大的支出，約占我們自由現金流支出的 60%。這正是您在我們降低自由現金流支出指導並實施重點招聘後在第二季度和第三季度看到的情況。您可以看到我們每位員工的支出略有下降。最後，我要強調的是，我們在本季度結束時擁有 317 名全職員工。根據每名員工的第三季度支出進行快速計算，您可以進一步推斷和三角測量我之前提到的 2700 萬美元的運行率自由現金流支出數字。有了這個，我會把它傳回給亞歷克斯。

Thank you, Richard. Moving on to Slide 12. I want to talk through how some of the core design principles that led us to identify the trucking use case are continuing to be applied today to ensure a clear path to commercialization in 2024. What we observed early on was that we needed to simplify the operating domain and focus on customers with a clear and present need for our technology in high-value applications. Back in 2016, Embark is one of the first players to focus on trucking when others were focused on passenger cars. We made this decision, which was controversial at the time because it achieved the objectives that we thought and continue to believe are critical to advancing the technology development in the economically viable manner. This allowed us to make rapid progress in a highly capital-efficient way, achieving our first intervention free run between 2 cities in 2018 with a few dozen engineers. We were able to achieve this high return on human capital because we took the time to form a view of how to commercialize AV in a focused manner.

謝謝你，理查德。轉到幻燈片 12。我想談談導致我們確定卡車運輸用例的一些核心設計原則如何在今天繼續應用，以確保在 2024 年實現商業化的清晰路徑。我們早期觀察到的是我們需要簡化運營領域，並專注於對我們的技術在高價值應用中有明確和當前需求的客戶。早在 2016 年，當其他公司專注於乘用車時，Embark 是首批專注於卡車運輸的公司之一。我們做出了這個當時引起爭議的決定，因為它實現了我們認為並繼續相信對於以經濟可行的方式推進技術開發至關重要的目標。這使我們能夠以高資本效率的方式取得快速進展，並在 2018 年與幾十名工程師一起實現了我們在 2 個城市之間的首次干預自由運行。我們之所以能夠實現如此高的人力資本回報，是因為我們花時間形成了一個關於如何以專注的方式將 AV 商業化的觀點。

Since then, as we've continued to develop the system, we've also doubled down on this thinking. And in the subsequent years, we further divided the trucking market into subsegments, enabling us to pull forward the segments of the market that best met our criteria of a simplified operating domain in high-value applications. To provide some specific examples, there are 3 key divisions we made within certain trucking sub segments. First, focusing on the Sunbelt region. This allows us to operate in primarily good weather, which simplifies a variety of constraints for the initial deployment of our software. Second, pioneering the concept of transfer hubs, which allows us to focus on highway driving and enables us to develop a differentiated technology stack, including technologies like VMF that are highly critical to address the use case. And third, focusing on long haul, which represents the most high-value segment of self-driving because of its high utilization, but also addresses macro challenges like the driver shortage issue, which allows our technology to create a lot of value for our customers and ultimately benefit consumers.

從那時起，隨著我們繼續開發該系統，我們也加倍考慮了這一想法。在隨後的幾年中，我們將卡車運輸市場進一步劃分為子部分，使我們能夠推進最符合我們在高價值應用程序中簡化操作域標準的市場部分。為了提供一些具體示例，我們在某些卡車運輸子細分市場中進行了 3 個關鍵劃分。首先，關注陽光帶地區。這使我們能夠在主要的好天氣下運營，從而簡化了我們軟件初始部署的各種限制。其次，開創換乘樞紐的概念，這使我們能夠專注於高速公路駕駛，並使我們能夠開發差異化的技術堆棧，包括 VMF 等對解決用例至關重要的技術。第三，專注於長途，這是自動駕駛中價值最高的部分，因為它的利用率高，但也解決了司機短缺問題等宏觀挑戰，這使我們的技術能夠為我們的客戶創造很多價值最終讓消費者受益。

As we've always said, the best way to advance the technology and operationalize in the commercial setting is through real-world experience and this is a critical aspect of TTP. This is also a significant contributor to how we refine and simplify the problem to ensure we're able to deploy our commercial product in 2024. The intelligent data prioritization system, which I described earlier, is a great example of the output of these real-world learnings. These learnings have supported the evolution of Embark from testing AV trucks within our own fleet to transitioning to carrier owned and operated AV trucks in their own fleets. We believe the next natural step is to demonstrate our ability to have Embark enabled AV trucks to operate in an economically viable commercial setting.

正如我們一直所說的那樣，在商業環境中推進技術和運營的最佳方式是通過現實世界的經驗，這是 TTP 的一個關鍵方面。這也是我們如何改進和簡化問題以確保我們能夠在 2024 年部署我們的商業產品的重要貢獻者。我之前描述的智能數據優先級排序系統是這些實際輸出的一個很好的例子-世界學問。這些經驗支持了 Embark 從在我們自己的車隊中測試 AV 卡車到過渡到在他們自己的車隊中運營商擁有和運營的 AV 卡車的演變。我們相信下一個自然步驟是證明我們有能力讓支持 Embark 的 AV 卡車在經濟上可行的商業環境中運行。

I want to reiterate this last point. As Richard alluded to, the self-driving industry has slowly followed Embark on some of our key early insights. For example, as I mentioned previously, the focus of some players evolving from robotaxi to the trucking market or the focus on the transfer point model. This key insight of simplifying the problem sits at the intersection of developing a product that can be deployed safely and ensuring that once it is deployed, then it can be done economically.

我想重申最後一點。正如 Richard 所暗示的那樣，自動駕駛行業已經慢慢地追隨 Embark 的一些關鍵早期見解。例如，正如我之前提到的，一些玩家的關注點從機器人出租車發展到卡車運輸市場，或者關注轉運點模型。這種簡化問題的關鍵見解位於開發可以安全部署的產品和確保一旦部署後可以經濟地完成的交叉點。

With that, let me turn to the next slide and speak in a bit more detail how we see this evolution continuing. Turning to Slide 13. As I just walked through, Embark has a history of simplifying the problem. We started by segmenting the AV industry into trucking and then further segmented down to lanes and route types, and this has accelerated our technology development significantly. As we now move into the next inning of commercialization and we take stock of the ecosystem's progress and our real-world learnings, we realize that it is time to continue this process even further by evaluating the trucking subsegments through the lens of the current realities of one, a manufacturing ecosystem that is taking longer to work down the cost curve; and two, a macro environment that is requiring tech providers to focus on financial metrics and pull forward commercialization. The objective remains the same, simplify the problem and ensure we address high-value customer applications. We have, therefore, been undertaking an exercise that begins to further segment the trucking market, but different market verticals served to uncover subsegments that enable us to further simplify the ODD and most importantly, control our own outcome of commercialization in 2024. We believe this approach provides an opportunity to achieve regular commercial hauls on our 2024 time line.

說到這裡，讓我轉到下一張幻燈片，更詳細地談談我們如何看待這種演變的繼續。轉到幻燈片 13。正如我剛剛瀏覽的那樣，Embark 有簡化問題的歷史。我們首先將 AV 行業細分為卡車運輸，然後進一步細分為車道和路線類型，這大大加快了我們的技術發展。隨著我們現在進入商業化的下一階段，並評估生態系統的進展和我們在現實世界中的學習，我們意識到是時候通過當前現實的視角評估卡車運輸細分市場來進一步繼續這一過程第一，製造生態系統需要更長的時間才能降低成本曲線；第二，宏觀環境要求技術供應商關注財務指標並推動商業化。目標保持不變，簡化問題並確保我們解決高價值客戶應用程序。因此，我們一直在開展一項工作，開始進一步細分卡車運輸市場，但不同的垂直市場有助於發現細分市場，使我們能夠進一步簡化 ODD，最重要的是，控制我們自己在 2024 年的商業化結果。我們相信這方法提供了在我們的 2024 年時間表上實現定期商業運輸的機會。

I think it's also important to note that in contrast to some of our competitors who are focused on running deliveries that are fundamentally uneconomical. We want to ensure that when we commercialize, we have a sustainable business that not only generates revenue but also adds compelling margins and a clear path to generating positive free cash flow.

我認為同樣重要的是要注意，與我們的一些競爭對手相比，他們專注於運行從根本上不經濟的交付。我們希望確保當我們商業化時，我們擁有可持續的業務，不僅可以產生收入，還可以增加可觀的利潤率和產生正自由現金流的明確途徑。

In summary, I wanted to provide this additional context, which I touched on last quarter on how we're thinking about commercializing our technology under the time lines we put forward. We're in active conversations with partners, which I can't share more detail on today, but are excited about multiple opportunities this will provide for us to have regular commercial deliveries with driver (inaudible) operations and compelling financial metrics. The real-world learnings from TTP and our PDP program, coupled with all of our projects completed to date are finally coming together as we chart the path to an economically viable commercial business. We are excited about some of the developments on this front, and we're looking forward to sharing more early next year. With that, I'll now turn the call back to Adam.

總之，我想提供這個額外的背景，我在上個季度談到了我們如何考慮在我們提出的時間表下將我們的技術商業化。我們正在與合作夥伴進行積極的對話，我今天無法分享更多細節，但很高興這將為我們提供多種機會，使我們能夠定期進行商業交付，包括司機（聽不清）運營和令人信服的財務指標。從 TTP 和我們的 PDP 計劃中獲得的現實經驗，加上我們迄今為止完成的所有項目，最終匯集在一起，為我們制定經濟上可行的商業業務之路。我們對這方面的一些進展感到興奮，我們期待在明年初分享更多信息。有了這個，我現在將電話轉回給亞當。

Thank you, Alex. Operator, let's begin the question-and-answer session.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。接線員，讓我們開始問答環節。

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Chris Wetherbee with Citi.

謝謝你。我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Chris Wetherbee。

Great. Maybe we could start with cash and just sort of getting a sense of how you think the trajectory looks towards that revenue realization in 2024, Alex, that you just mentioned. So I think maybe 2 questions embedded here. Do you think that there are sort of the $100 million to $115 million of annual run rate is a good number as we're beginning to think of 2023? And then in terms of the fourth quarter, there's a decent sort of spread between the $100 million and $115 million in terms of what could happen in the fourth quarter. So any sort of help in determining what the factors would be that would get you at the higher or lower end of that number for the fourth quarter?

偉大的。亞歷克斯，您剛才提到的，也許我們可以從現金開始，了解您認為 2024 年實現收入的軌跡如何。所以我想這裡可能有 2 個問題。當我們開始考慮 2023 年時，您認為每年 1 億美元到 1.15 億美元的運行率是一個好數字嗎？然後就第四季度而言，就第四季度可能發生的情況而言，在 1 億美元和 1.15 億美元之間存在相當大的差距。那麼，在確定哪些因素會使您在第四季度達到該數字的較高端或較低端時，有什麼幫助嗎？

I can talk on the balance sheet first. I think to your first question, we haven't provided guidance yet in 2023, but we try to give you the road map of at least how to think about what runway looks like. And I think as we've said, we feel very good about the team that we have today. So I think it's probably a good place to start. And then as it relates to fourth quarter, I think we want to continue to reaffirm the guidance that we gave. And I think you can expect that guidance to be fairly consistent with what we expect. I think there's obviously some timing things that could change one way or the other, but we feel pretty good around the numbers that we provided.

我可以先談談資產負債表。我想對於你的第一個問題，我們還沒有在 2023 年提供指導，但我們試圖為你提供至少如何思考跑道是什麼樣子的路線圖。我認為正如我們所說，我們對今天的團隊感覺非常好。所以我認為這可能是一個很好的起點。然後關於第四季度，我認為我們希望繼續重申我們給出的指導。而且我認為您可以期望該指南與我們的預期相當一致。我認為顯然有一些時間上的事情可能會以一種或另一種方式改變，但我們對我們提供的數字感覺很好。

Okay. So just the timing of specific items in the fourth quarter that could sort of account for that $15 million spread. You guys have been running in a relatively tight spread. So I guess, is that the dynamics of some timing of things that could be either in fourth quarter or first quarter?

好的。因此，僅第四季度特定項目的時間就可以解釋這 1500 萬美元的價差。你們一直在相對緊張的價差中運行。所以我想，這可能是第四季度或第一季度的某些時間動態嗎？

Exactly.

確切地。

Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe I just want to touch on sort of Alex, where you left off, which was sort of this use case that could be achieved by 2024. So I guess I just maybe want to make sure that I'm clear on what you mean by that language. It sounds like you're suggesting that toward the end of next year and into 2024, there could be a revenue-generating case. So I want to sort of understand how you think about that? I know you can't get into too much detail about specific partners, but maybe a sense of what that might look like? And then I guess a follow-up question would just be on the TTP. Just want to get a sense of how many trucks are being delivered and if there are any revenue generation opportunities there or if it's going to be solely for testing? Can you just give us a little bit of color on that to those 2 items, please?

好的。好的。這很有幫助。然後也許我只想談一談亞歷克斯，你離開的地方，這是一個可以在 2024 年實現的用例。所以我想我可能只是想確保我清楚你說的是什麼用那種語言表示。聽起來你是在暗示，到明年年底和 2024 年，可能會有一個創收案例。所以我想了解一下你是怎麼想的？我知道您無法深入了解特定合作夥伴的詳細信息，但也許可以了解它的外觀？然後我想後續問題只會出現在 TTP 上。只是想了解有多少輛卡車正在交付，那裡是否有任何創收機會，或者是否僅用於測試？你能給我們一些關於這兩個項目的顏色嗎？

Yes. Maybe I'll do the last question first there. The TTP program is going to be a fairly limited number of vehicles really focused on testing. I think what's critical from our perspective is that these will be the first iteration of a real product. And obviously, I spent a bunch of time today walking through some of the important ways that it's going to be a lot more mature and it's going to be able to actually be handed over and used in regular operations. But it's not going to achieve some of those other milestones yet when we're talking about the scalability or the driver out. So that's really what we're talking about next as we look to what I talked about at the end of the presentation is, now that the systems reached a level of maturity where it's ready to be delivered as a product we're starting to get very serious about making sure that we have a clear path to have that product in the hands of customers that meet those other 2 criteria, right, that they're ultimately scalable and economical. And I think we have a pretty clear path to do that going into 2024.

是的。也許我會先在那裡做最後一個問題。 TTP 計劃將是數量相當有限的真正專注於測試的車輛。我認為從我們的角度來看，關鍵是這些將是真正產品的第一次迭代。顯然，我今天花了很多時間來了解一些重要的方法，它會變得更加成熟，並且能夠實際移交並用於常規操作。但是當我們談論可擴展性或驅動程序時，它還不會實現其他一些里程碑。所以這就是我們接下來要討論的內容，正如我們在演示結束時所說的那樣，現在系統已經達到成熟水平，可以作為我們開始獲得的產品交付非常認真地確保我們有一條清晰的途徑讓滿足其他兩個標準的客戶掌握該產品，對，他們最終是可擴展的和經濟的。而且我認為我們有一條非常明確的途徑可以在 2024 年之前做到這一點。

And just one follow-up on that if you bear with me here, just in terms of the time in terms of production to take to enable the EUI to work with production line vehicles? Do we think that, that lead time? Or do you have a sense of what that lead time is, how long you need to work with the truck or you need to get the OEMs to work for the truck to make sure they're is the ability to deliver trucks in 2024?

如果您在這裡耐心等待，只是關於使 EUI 與生產線車輛一起工作所需的生產時間的後續行動？我們認為那個交貨時間嗎？或者您是否了解交貨時間是多少，您需要與卡車合作多長時間，或者您需要讓原始設備製造商為卡車工作以確保他們有能力在 2024 年交付卡車？

Yes. So this ends up being an evolution over time. If you look at what we did for TTP, I think that's a pretty good illustrative example where we started a couple of quarters ago in terms of having a brand-new OEM platform that Knight-Swift wanted to be ordering on, and we'll be delivering first truck by the end of the year. And so a couple of quarters is a pretty good view of what does it take to go from raw never having worked on a platform before to able to deliver a first truck -- that said, I think there's incremental work that goes in there, right. We're talking about delivering vehicles via an integration, but that level of manufacturing integration is able to go up over time, right. And so I think as we look at driving efficiencies, there's incremental time and effort to move that installation up in the supply chain, so to speak, so that it's more efficiently done closer to the assembly line. But if you think about sort of what is the base case requirements to get started on a new platform a couple of quarters is probably a pretty good yardstick.

是的。所以這最終會隨著時間的推移而演變。如果你看看我們為 TTP 做了什麼，我認為這是一個很好的說明性例子，我們在幾個季度前開始擁有一個全新的 OEM 平台，Knight-Swift 想要訂購，我們將年底前交付第一輛卡車。因此，幾個季度可以很好地了解從以前從未在平台上工作過的原始狀態到能夠交付第一輛卡車需要做些什麼——也就是說，我認為那裡有增量工作，對吧.我們正在談論通過集成交付車輛，但製造集成的水平會隨著時間的推移而上升，對吧。所以我認為，當我們著眼於提高效率時，可以說，在供應鏈中向上移動該安裝需要花費更多的時間和精力，這樣可以更有效地靠近裝配線。但是，如果您考慮開始使用新平台的基本情況要求，那麼幾個季度可能是一個很好的衡量標準。

Next question comes from Todd Fowler with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Todd Fowler。

Alex, just sticking with the truck transfer program with Knight. It seems like you're on track to deliver the truck by the end of the year. Once that truck is fully in Knight's hands, is it immediately operational at that point? Or are there things that they'll need to be doing on their end? And then maybe if you could share kind of what's the operational range that they'll have with that truck, the frequency of use, lanes, those sorts of things. So just a little bit of kind of the -- once you deliver the truck to them what happens next?

亞歷克斯，只是堅持與奈特的卡車轉移計劃。看來您有望在年底前交付卡車。一旦那輛卡車完全掌握在 Knight 手中，它會立即投入使用嗎？或者他們最終需要做些什麼？然後也許如果你可以分享他們對那輛卡車的操作範圍是什麼，使用頻率，車道，諸如此類的事情。所以只是一點點——一旦你把卡車交給他們，接下來會發生什麼？

Yes. Great question. So we -- if you think about what we're doing on our side, we're actually in sort of final stage testing right now. And so by the time the truck gets handed over to Knight, the truck will have been through its paces and really be ready to be used immediately. The final incremental work that we're going to be doing once they had the truck in their hands, is they're going to be going through the same driver training program that we put our safety drivers through at Embark so that they're sort of fully up to speed. And I mentioned that we've already gone through training for dispatchers and for maintenance staff. And so that's sort of the first piece is just making sure that all the staff at Knight are ready to utilize the vehicles, which I think it can be a really important piece of the learnings and the work we're doing with TTP. And then following that is going to go into the regular operations and do regular commercial loads on one of the highest volume Knight-Swift lanes that they operate. And so it will pretty quickly go into our regular service. And I think one of the notable and important pieces here is that we've been targeting the same duty cycle as the other trucks in the fleet. And so when we think about what is the maintenance cycle, what is the number of runs per day, what is the overall availability. All of this will be consistent with the other vehicles they're running. And I think that's really an important objective that we set out for when putting together the TTP.

是的。很好的問題。所以我們——如果你考慮一下我們在我們這邊所做的事情，我們現在實際上正處於最後階段的測試中。因此，當卡車移交給 Knight 時，卡車已經完成了它的步伐，真正準備好立即使用。一旦他們拿到卡車，我們要做的最後一項增量工作是，他們將接受與我們在 Embark 對安全駕駛員進行的相同的駕駛員培訓計劃，以便他們分類完全跟上速度。我提到我們已經對調度員和維護人員進行了培訓。因此，第一件事情就是確保 Knight 的所有員工都準備好使用這些車輛，我認為這可能是我們正在與 TTP 進行的學習和工作中非常重要的一部分。然後接下來將進入常規運營，並在他們運營的流量最大的 Knight-Swift 車道之一上進行常規商業裝載。因此，它將很快進入我們的常規服務。我認為這裡值得注意和重要的部分之一是我們一直以與車隊中其他卡車相同的工作週期為目標。因此，當我們考慮維護週期是多少，每天運行的次數是多少，整體可用性是多少。所有這些都將與他們正在運行的其他車輛保持一致。我認為這確實是我們在製定 TTP 時設定的一個重要目標。

Yes. That's great. And that's just helpful just to think about kind of the next steps beyond when you turn over the truck. With the announcements, I think it was earlier this month about the 9 new terminals and expanding the network. Can you maybe provide some context? I think that in the presentation today, it talks about multiple pilots with PDP partners, what is the scope right now? If there's anything you can share either number of trucks, a number of partners that are currently utilizing the expanded network. Just kind of any sense of scale would be helpful for where you're at with the network at this point.

是的。那太棒了。當你把卡車翻過來時，想想接下來的步驟是很有幫助的。有了公告，我認為是本月早些時候關於 9 個新終端和擴展網絡的消息。你能提供一些背景嗎？我認為在今天的演示中，它談到了與 PDP 合作夥伴的多個試點，現在的範圍是什麼？如果有任何東西可以共享任何數量的卡車，許多合作夥伴目前正在使用擴展的網絡。任何一種規模感都會對您此時在網絡上所處的位置有所幫助。

Yes. I would say that the way to think about the network at this stage is really focused on allowing our partners to plan for the future. The -- if you look back at the 14,200 reservations we have through the PDP program, one of the important commitments that we made to those partners is to use those reservations, use the rollout plans that we developed together with those management teams to be able to really lay the groundwork for them to be able to deploy the vehicles at scale. And so we have been working with our partners and running those through these sites. But I think the bigger and more important role that they serve is to really be able to provide clarity on what the rollout is going to look like in commercialization and how those partners can think about what percentage of their existing lanes and runs are they in a position to be able to bring online in the medium term?

是的。我想說的是，現階段考慮網絡的方式實際上是專注於讓我們的合作夥伴為未來做計劃。 - 如果您回顧一下我們通過 PDP 計劃進行的 14,200 次預訂，我們對這些合作夥伴做出的重要承諾之一就是使用這些預訂，使用我們與這些管理團隊一起制定的推出計劃，以便能夠真正為他們能夠大規模部署車輛奠定基礎。因此，我們一直在與我們的合作夥伴合作，並通過這些網站運行它們。但我認為他們發揮的更大、更重要的作用是真正能夠清楚地說明在商業化中的推出將是什麼樣子，以及這些合作夥伴如何考慮他們現有車道和運行的百分比是他們在能夠在中期上線的位置？

Okay. That makes sense. I got that. And then, Richard, I think you've been clear on this, but I just want to just spend one more moment on it. It sounds like that the message here is that the rough baseline for cash burn is around $27 million per quarter, but there'll be some variance around that based on timing of working capital or payments, and it sounds like second half of this year, maybe a little bit above. But it sounds like just for planning purposes and understanding that you're not giving guidance for '23, but it seems like you're kind of pointing us to thinking about that $27 million as being the baseline. Is that the correct message that you're providing today?

好的。那講得通。收到。然後，理查德，我認為你已經清楚這一點，但我只想再花一點時間。聽起來這裡的信息是，現金消耗的粗略基線約為每季度 2700 萬美元，但根據營運資金或付款的時間安排，這個數字會有一些差異，聽起來像是今年下半年，也許有點上面。但這聽起來只是為了規劃目的和理解你沒有為 23 年提供指導，但你似乎在暗示我們將 2700 萬美元作為基線。這是您今天提供的正確信息嗎？

Yes, I think that's a good assumption.

是的，我認為這是一個很好的假設。

Next question comes from Jeff Kauffman with Vertical Research Partners.

下一個問題來自 Vertical Research Partners 的 Jeff Kauffman。

Alex, Rich, team, I just want to thank you for all the clarity in your slide presentation, and congratulations on the achievement of the new milestones. I'd like to follow up on Todd's question on the nationwide network. The one thing that you've made very clear is you're not a build it and they will come company necessarily that when you do things, it tends to be driven by customer discussions and customer requests. So with that in mind, you're testing this nationwide network concept with your PDP partners, what are you being asked to do today that might be a little different than what you were being asked to do, say, 6 months ago by your partners?

亞歷克斯、里奇、團隊，我只想感謝你們在幻燈片演示中的清晰，並祝賀你們實現了新的里程碑。我想在全國網絡上跟進托德的問題。你已經明確表示的一件事是你不是一個構建者，當你做事時，他們必然會來公司，它往往是由客戶討論和客戶要求驅動的。因此，考慮到這一點，您正在與您的 PDP 合作夥伴一起測試這個全國性網絡概念，您今天被要求做的事情可能與您的合作夥伴要求您做的事情（比如 6 個月前）有所不同？

Yes, it's an interesting question. One of the things that I would highlight about the Coast to Coast network is, I think this is a really a really useful demonstration of Embark's asset-light approach here, where Embark is able to bring these sites online, but without going out and buying a bunch of physical facilities. And in fact, we have a lot of flexibility to scale up and scale down the actual footprint on many of these sites because of our partnership with Alterra. And so what we've been able to do is in a very capital-efficient way, get access to these sites, bring them on in the form of leases and then have the flexibility to be able to adjust the scale of those sites to match demand as it scales up. And so I think that has been something that's been really well received.

是的，這是一個有趣的問題。關於 Coast to Coast 網絡，我要強調的一件事是，我認為這是對 Embark 輕資產方法的一個非常有用的演示，Embark 能夠將這些站點聯機，但無需外出購買一堆物理設施。事實上，由於我們與 Alterra 的合作關係，我們有很大的靈活性來擴大和縮小其中許多網站的實際足跡。因此，我們能夠做的是以一種非常具有資本效率的方式，訪問這些站點，以租賃的形式提供它們，然後可以靈活地調整這些站點的規模以匹配規模擴大時的需求。所以我認為這是非常受歡迎的事情。

The next push, I think, for these -- for the Coverage Map is really going to be starting to talk to customers about private sites. So we typically talk about this Coast to Coast Coverage Map as the Backbone, and I think that it serves a really important purpose as the Backbone to be able to give all of these carriers access to important markets. But the thing that we're now hearing is people are really starting to think about how can they go above and beyond that and deliver a more specialized product that gives them even more value. And that means we're starting to talk about the potential to bring private sites into the Coverage Map. And I think that's an area where Embark again really differentiates ourselves from some of our competitors who want to be sort of owning their own physical infrastructure.

我認為，對於這些 - 對於 Coverage Map，下一步的推動將真正開始與客戶討論私人網站。因此，我們通常將這個海岸到海岸覆蓋圖作為骨幹網進行討論，我認為它作為骨幹網具有非常重要的目的，能夠讓所有這些運營商進入重要市場。但我們現在聽到的是，人們真正開始思考他們如何超越這一點，提供更專業的產品，為他們帶來更多價值。這意味著我們開始討論將私人網站帶入覆蓋地圖的可能性。我認為這是 Embark 再次真正將自己與一些希望擁有自己的物理基礎設施的競爭對手區分開來的領域。

Okay. And then just a follow-up. One of the things I found interesting was to talk about all the sensor upgrades and the slide that you had on that. And I think many of us are focused on, okay, let's see the time line for solving these additional 3 cases and kind of the time line of commercialization. But to your point, the -- whether it's the sensors, whether it's the technology, whether it's the software behind it, there's upgrades consistently going on with each iteration of what you're doing. So I guess my question is, we've talked about the use cases. What are the technology or hardware opportunities that are out there that would make a meaningful difference in the product to customers, you still haven't had a chance to get or maybe the technologies where it needs to be? But what are some of the big opportunities on the hardware technology side as opposed to, say, road triangles, inspections, blown tires?

好的。然後只是跟進。我發現有趣的一件事是談論所有傳感器升級和你擁有的幻燈片。而且我認為我們中的許多人都專注於，好吧，讓我們看看解決這額外 3 個案例的時間表以及商業化的時間表。但就你的觀點而言，無論是傳感器、技術還是背後的軟件，你所做的每一次迭代都會不斷升級。所以我想我的問題是，我們已經討論了用例。有哪些技術或硬件機會可以對客戶的產品產生有意義的影響，您仍然沒有機會獲得或者可能獲得需要的技術？但是，與道路三角、檢查、爆胎相比，硬件技術方面的一些重大機遇是什麼？

Yes. I think the biggest opportunity for hardware at this stage are actually really starting to become fairly iterative. So we're quite happy with the capabilities. And even if you look at sort of what we talked about for the upgrades we made for TTP, in many cases, this wasn't the top line spec sheet that we're changing, rather, it was the reliability in some cases, the pricing, the serviceability, and that's really where we start looking at those improvements. So I wouldn't say we're necessarily looking for big step changes in performance but really taking a couple of years ago cutting-edge performance and starting to see it become more commoditized, lower price, better reliability and performance -- that's really where we see the opportunities. And I think that's really going to push the industry forward.

是的。我認為現階段硬件的最大機會實際上是真正開始變得相當迭代。所以我們對這些功能非常滿意。即使你看一下我們為 TTP 所做的升級所談論的內容，在許多情況下，這並不是我們正在更改的頂級規格表，而是在某些情況下的可靠性，定價、可維護性，這才是我們真正開始關注這些改進的地方。所以我不會說我們一定要在性能上尋求大的進步，但實際上是在幾年前採用尖端性能並開始看到它變得更加商品化、更低的價格、更好的可靠性和性能——這才是真正的地方我們看到了機會。我認為這真的會推動行業向前發展。

Next question comes from Dave Vernon with Bernstein.

下一個問題來自 Dave Vernon 和 Bernstein。

Thanks for the presentation today. Alex, can you talk a little bit about the TTP program as you move from one driver to an Embark to a Knight driver, what's the commercial relationship there? Are you guys still going to be licensing the technology at that stage? I'm just trying to get a sense for how we go from 2 Embark drivers to 1 Embark driver, it's a one Knight driver to eventually one -- to eventually no driver. When is it that we should expect the meter to start ticking as far as kind of licensing the technology?

感謝您今天的介紹。亞歷克斯，當你從一個司機轉向 Embark 再到 Knight 司機時，你能談談 TTP 計劃嗎，那裡的商業關係是什麼？在那個階段，你們還會授權技術嗎？我只是想了解我們是如何從 2 個 Embark 驅動程序到 1 個 Embark 驅動程序的，它是一個 Knight 驅動程序到最終一個 - 最終沒有驅動程序。就技術許可而言，我們應該期望電錶什麼時候開始滴答作響？

Yes. So the way to think about this is I think there's that really big shift from trucks that are owned and outside of the one run are maintained operated sort of fully under the operating authority of a self-driving company. And here, I'll note even when we talk about the number of trucks that Embark has, we're not even counting the TTP trucks. They're not our trucks. They're trucks that are owned by Knight-Swift and that we're working on the integration and the upgrades for but that are not Embark trucks. And so I think that's a really sort of meaningful difference in that upstream of all of the changes in staffing that those are then moving to Knight-Swift drivers.

是的。因此，思考這個問題的方式是，我認為從擁有的卡車和單次運行之外的卡車發生了真正的重大轉變，這些卡車完全在自動駕駛公司的運營權限下進行維護。在這裡，我會注意到即使我們談論 Embark 擁有的卡車數量，我們甚至沒有計算 TTP 卡車。他們不是我們的卡車。它們是 Knight-Swift 擁有的卡車，我們正在為它們進行集成和升級，但它們不是 Embark 卡車。因此，我認為在人員配置的所有變化的上游，這些變化正在轉移到 Knight-Swift 司機身上，這是一個真正有意義的差異。

I think that in this initial phase, the way that we're really thinking about the value creation is similar to, if you think about how an electric vehicle gets deployed, you have a very small number that are getting put into the fleet early so that they can go through their paces, they can demonstrate maintenance intervals, performance, uptime. And that's the final step for a fleet to really get comfortable to then be able to buy them in a much larger volume. So the the initial pilot deployment. We don't have any guidance to give on sort of when we would see that, the meter start running there. I think the scale is going to be small enough that this is really more about the learnings and the progress towards being able to scale that up.

我認為，在這個初始階段，我們真正考慮價值創造的方式類似於，如果你考慮電動汽車的部署方式，你有非常小的數量被提早投入車隊所以他們可以按自己的節奏進行，他們可以展示維護間隔、性能和正常運行時間。這是車隊真正適應之後能夠大量購買它們的最後一步。所以初步試點部署。我們沒有任何指導來說明我們什麼時候會看到，儀表開始在那裡運行。我認為規模將足夠小，以至於這實際上更多地是關於學習和能夠擴大規模的進展。

And could you maybe comment a little bit on your conversations with Knight in terms of what their process would be for making that decision then within the TTP program to take the driver out. I'm just wondering like how long does this -- how long does this trial and sort of deeper sort of testing in my own trucks, because I'm a trucker, process -- how long does that state last, do you think?

您能否就您與 Knight 的對話發表一些評論，了解他們在 TTP 計劃中做出該決定的過程是什麼，然後在 TTP 計劃中將司機淘汰。我只是想知道這會持續多長時間——這種試驗和在我自己的卡車上進行的更深入的測試會持續多長時間，因為我是一名卡車司機，過程——這種狀態會持續多長時間，你認為呢？

Yes. The way I would think about this is that this is going to be -- the TTP trucks themselves are designed for the 2023 testing phase -- and then driver out is something that will occur as part of commercialization in 2024.

是的。我的想法是，這將是——TTP 卡車本身是為 2023 年的測試階段設計的——然後作為商業化的一部分將在 2024 年推出。

But as far as kind of Knight's sort of threshold for when they might make that decision, right? Because obviously, when they take their driver out and it's their hardware, then they're going to be liable, right?

但就奈特關於他們何時做出決定的門檻而言，對吧？因為很明顯，當他們取出他們的驅動程序並且這是他們的硬件時，他們將承擔責任，對嗎？

Liability is a pretty complex question, but obviously, Knight takes their safety and their authority extremely seriously. And so it has a really high bar for this stuff. I think that's exactly why TTP is theirs for them to be able to take the tire, so to speak, and see the trucks up close and personal. I think one of the things that they asked us for and sort of part of the reason that the TTP program exists is I think a lot of carriers have been in demos where they've seen a truck run for a handful of hours -- and in order for them to get comfortable, they really want to be able to see the system performance over a much longer period of time, right. And so I think that's one of the reasons why it's notable that it's Knight drivers in these trucks. It for us, demonstrates a level of confidence this system is going to be performing day in and day out. And for Knight, it represents one of the most important things they're going to be looking at is talking to the drivers and looking at the actual performance level that they see over an extended period of time.

責任是一個相當複雜的問題，但顯然，奈特非常重視他們的安全和權威。所以它對這些東西有很高的標準。我認為這就是為什麼 TTP 是他們的，因為他們能夠拿走輪胎，可以這麼說，並近距離和個人地看到卡車。我認為他們要求我們做的一件事以及 TTP 計劃存在的部分原因是我認為很多運營商已經在演示中看到一輛卡車運行了幾個小時——而且為了讓他們感到舒服，他們真的希望能夠在更長的時間內看到系統性能，對吧。因此，我認為這就是為什麼值得注意的是這些卡車中的騎士司機的原因之一。對我們來說，它展示了該系統將日復一日地運行的信心水平。對於 Knight 來說，這代表他們將要關注的最重要的事情之一就是與車手交談並查看他們在很長一段時間內看到的實際表現水平。

Next question comes from (inaudible) with (inaudible).

下一個問題來自（聽不清）和（聽不清）。

Kind of piggybacking on the last question there. So how long does the training program take with the Knight-Swift employees before they can be in the vehicles?

有點搭訕那裡的最後一個問題。那麼，在 Knight-Swift 員工上車之前，培訓計劃需要多長時間？

Yes. So we've already spent a lot of time getting this kicked off and working with different parts of the Knight-Swift staff. So I would say we're pretty far along. The training program is a handful of weeks to do that final step where folks are going in and really learning the specifics of how to interact with a truck that has a self-driving system installed.

是的。所以我們已經花了很多時間來啟動它並與 Knight-Swift 員工的不同部分合作。所以我想說我們還差得很遠。培訓計劃需要幾週的時間來完成最後一步，人們將進入並真正學習如何與安裝了自動駕駛系統的卡車互動的細節。

Okay. Great. And then just one more from me. So in terms of overcoming -- or I guess what would be the biggest issues in terms of overcoming road triangles, inspections and blown tires? Kind of where do you expect to be held up on those initiatives if you expect to hold up at all?

好的。偉大的。然後再給我一個。所以就克服而言——或者我想在克服道路三角、檢查和爆胎方面最大的問題是什麼？如果您希望完全堅持下去，您希望在哪些方面會受到阻礙？

Yes. I think each of these is a significant and challenging milestone that's going to require a meaningful amount of work. But I would say that we feel very good about our position on all 3. I think going into next year, there's actually been a lot of progress that, some of it that we've talked about on these calls, some of it that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet. But we have a pretty good line of sight to the key pieces that need to go into place for each of these next year. And so I think we're feeling pretty good about our ability to execute on all of them.

是的。我認為每一個都是重要且具有挑戰性的里程碑，需要大量的工作。但我要說的是，我們對我們在這三個方面的立場感覺非常好。我認為進入明年，實際上已經取得了很多進展，其中一些是我們在這些電話會議上談到的，一些是我們還沒有機會談。但是我們對明年需要落實到位的關鍵部分有很好的認識。因此，我認為我們對執行所有這些任務的能力感到非常滿意。

Okay. And if you could -- like could you give any tangible examples of like those key pieces? Yes. So I mean, I think a great example is on the inspection side. One of the biggest input to the inspection solution was having a clear direction from the regulators as to what would be an acceptable solution that meets the guidelines without needing to pull into way stations and perform Level 1 inspections without driver present. And as I actually talked about this on one of the slides, so 2 months ago, back in September, the work that we've spent a number of years with CVSA on paid off and they endorsed basically a set of procedures that would allow a driverless truck to be inspected at the transfer point and then not need to stop with the way station. And so we have a pretty good line of sight there now to, okay, the procedures have been approved. There's work to be done in terms of both implementing the technical pieces to be able to actually get the bypass and there's work to be done in terms of training program and that getting rolled out across state. But as far as the -- coming up with a solution and getting it endorsed by the regulators, that's pretty much done at this stage. And so it's a matter of execution. So I think that's probably a pretty good example.

好的。如果可以的話——你能舉出這些關鍵部分的具體例子嗎？是的。所以我的意思是，我認為一個很好的例子是在檢查方面。檢查解決方案的最大輸入之一是監管機構明確指示什麼是可接受的解決方案，該解決方案符合指南，無需駛入路站並在沒有駕駛員在場的情況下執行 1 級檢查。正如我實際上在其中一張幻燈片上談到的那樣，兩個月前，早在 9 月，我們與 CVSA 合作多年的工作得到了回報，他們基本上認可了一套程序，允許無人駕駛卡車在轉運點接受檢查，無需在中轉站停車。所以我們現在有一個很好的視線，好的，程序已經批准。在實施能夠真正繞過技術的技術方面還有工作要做，在培訓計劃和跨州推廣方面也有工作要做。但就提出解決方案並獲得監管機構認可而言，這在現階段已基本完成。所以這是執行的問題。所以我認為這可能是一個很好的例子。

Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

感謝您的參與，祝您有美好的一天。