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First Trip Together

Although Nestor was quite surprised by Moana's question, he replied almost instantly that, yes, he would go with her in her truck to Kirkland and back on Friday.

So, on Friday, February 27^th, at 6:30 AM, Nestor was waiting in front of the house he had built at 17949 12 Avenue in Surrey. And Moana arrived 4 minutes later with her white semi-truck tractor, without a trailer.

Nestor climbed into the truck cabin and Moana drove West on 12 Avenue, then South on Highway 15. In 10 minutes they were at the border that they crossed in less than 5 minutes. Soon, they were on the I-5 going South, and Moana put the truck in self-driving mode.

During the 90 minutes the truck drove autonomously on the I-5, Moana was able to explain to Nestor how the system worked in detail.

First, she described the two differential GPS systems, with their two displays.

Then she listed all the different sensors: the 13 cameras, including 3 infra-red ones, the three Lidar systems in the front.
And finally, she talked about the communication systems installed, two radios for the differential GPS, and two 5G systems for external communication.

Nestor was listening attentively and asked many questions that Moana was able to answer most of the time. He also asked questions about the processing unit and its interfaces that Moana could not answer properly.

Around 8:30AM, the truck slowed down by itself and took the ramp on the right to I-405 towards Kirkland. Less than 15 minutes later, the truck started to slow down before the exit to Kirkland, and Moana started to drive manually until they arrived at the big Costco warehouse where a trailer was waiting.

Moana maneuvered to hook the trailer her truck tractor, then she showed Nestor the differents cables that went from the tractor to the trailer: braking, lights and the two cameras at the back of the trailer.

Moana then parked the semi-truck near the warehouse and show Nestor the electric engine and the hydrogen fuel-cell that supplied the power.

At 11AM, they ate an early lunch in the cabin of the truck and at 11:30 they were back on the I-405 going North. And at 1:15PM, they crossed the border and Moana drove the truck to the Costco warehouse in Richmond where they arrived around 2PM. At 2:15PM, the trailer was unhooked and they were free for the day.

Nestor then suggested that he could show his house to Moana. So, Moana drove the truck to her parking place near her apartment in Richmond, she took her motorbike and they drove back to South Surrey.

Nestor asked zillions of questions to Moana, mostly about self-driving trucks.
That is when he decided that he would begin to work in software for autonomous trucks.

They cooked a vegan dinner, as there was no meat, fish or eggs in Nestor's house. Moana stayed the night.

Next: Part 7: Coder Becomes Trucker

Part 1: An Eventless Trip
Part 2: Nestor, Son of Immigrants
Part 3: Moana, a "demi-tinto" from Punaauia
Part 4: Nestor and Moana Meet Online
Part 5: First Dates

Trucking Coders, Coding Truckers - Part 6: First Trip Together

First Trip Together