Autonomous Freight

Waabi announced a strategic partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks.

Autonomous yard operations leader Outrider recently announced an industry-first deployment of advanced reinforcement learning (RL) techniques across its customer sites.

Safety and labor advocates won out over robotic trucking after the FMCSA rejected a request to replace traditional roadside warning devices with cab-mounted equipment.

Bankruptcy filings carry a stigma but sometimes the outcomes promise new life. Proterra might be one such story.

Animus between co-founders of TuSimple is playing out in courts across the US with a proposed liquidation the latest salvo.

How much influence could a $250 million purchases of 500 electric trucks have on establishing the value of used trucks?

Xiaodi Hou was cast as a villain in the decline into irrelevance of autonomous trucking developer TuSimple. He sees it differently.

Autonomous truck developers are trying to figure out what a proposed ban on Chinese components will mean to them.

The lanes are getting longer for autonomous trucks and the promise of greater profitability is predicted to follow.

Driverless truck developers are looking to third-party validators to back their safety claims.

While the company continues to deny any wrongdoing, TuSimple has filed to settle its federal fraud case.

A name change to drop the word diesel from its title may have been the politically correct move. But diesel is not going anywhere.

J.B. Hunt and autonomous truck maker Kodiak Robotics have executed more than 50,000 accident-free miles on a long-haul lane between Bridgestone facilities.

Kodiak Robotics is delaying commercial on-highway driverless trucks to focus on autonomy in the Permian Basin.

James Taylor will take his second run at leading a commercial electric truck company as the new CEO of Bollinger Motors.

Autonomous trucking pioneer Chris Urmson and relative latecomer Raquel Urtasun do not agree on how to apply AI in autonomous trucking.

Uber Freight and Aurora Innovation have launched a subscription program making it easier for carriers in the Uber Freight network to invest in autonomous assets.

Waabi has raised $200 million in an oversubscribed Series B round, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures, the company announced. Waabi plans to launch fully driverless trucks in Texas by 2025.

With new investments from Isuzu and trading giant Itochu, Gatik is on the path to mass production of short-haul autonomous trucks in 2027.

A newsier-than-typical Advanced Clean Transportation Expo featured the first appearance by Tesla and a single stage gathering of legacy OEMs.

Using off-the-shelf technologies, Daimler Truck created a demonstration autonomous truck that runs on batteries instead of diesel.

The potential energy and environmental gains from autonomous trucking are laid out in a new white paper from Aurora Innovation.

Autonomous trucking regulation is already a state-by-state issue. In California, it may become a community-by-community matter.

The energy sources that will power trucks that carry freight in the future was the focus of a discussion at CERAWeek. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves).

After numerous rides in autonomous trucks monitored by safety drivers in case of a mishap, I found it almost surreal to climb into Aurora Innovation’s Class 8 driverless truck, buckle up, hear the engine rumble to life and the air brakes disengage, and feel the truck move under its own power — with no one […]

The arcade game Whac-A-Mole describes state-by-state approach to rules of the driverless road while 50-state solution appears far off.

Ryder System is leasing space at a Houston maintenance facility to Kodiak Robotics for driverless truck operations.

One-time autonomous trucking leader TuSimple took the next step in its pullout from the U.S. market by voluntarily delisting from the Nasdaq.

Middle-mile autonomous trucking leader Gatik is benefitting from additional technology advancements in its collaboration with Goodyear.

Kodiak Robotics showed its 6th-generation autonomous truck that will begin hauling freight without a driver in Texas later this year.

Nikola is finally putting its fuel cell electric truck in the hands of retail customers like Bill Hall of Coyote Container.

Aurora Innovation has frozen the designs for its Aurora Driver hardware that German supplier Continental will build.

Three companies departed autonomous trucking in 2023 as Aurora Innovation, Kodiak Robotics and Torc Robotics staked leadership claims.

The financial freezeout of startups by investors may be thawing as FOMU — the fear of messing up — begins to subside.

TuSimple Holdings is following through on winding down its U.S. autonomous trucking business, laying off 150 more employees.

Torc Robotics has the autonomous truck nearly ready. Now comes the hard work of making a business from it.

Uber Freight has more than 100 shipper companies lined up to run autonomous freight, but the capacity just doesn’t exist yet.

Who is leading, following, emerging or out of the game in autonomous trucking? Here’s an assessment of shifts among the players.

Aurora Innovation opened its Interstate 45 autonomous trucking route between Dallas and Houston as unease and criticism grow.

Can Outrider hold onto its healthy lead in distribution yard autonomy as competition begins to form?

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sided with autonomous technology developers over organized labor and his own party in vetoing AB 316.

Startup software developer Waabi, a late entry to autonomous trucking, has a 10-year deal to haul on the Uber Freight network.

The California Senate passed a bill to ban heavy-duty driverless trucks, leaving it to Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign or veto the legislation.

Amid a contraction of autonomous trucking firms, the founders of self-driving startup Argo AI are launching a driverless trucking startup.

Tyson Foods has signed a three-year contract to use Gatik autonomous trucks to move its protein products on the middle mile.

The governor of California appears to favor supporting autonomous trucking technology over labor objections.

Investor confidence coincidentally clashes with an executive’s stock sales at autonomous trucking developer.

The future of Waymo Via had been whispered about for months after parent Alphabet Inc. cut thousands of jobs across the company earlier this year.

Seeking clues in TuSimple’s delayed financials; a case for an autonomous trucking slowdown; and Kodiak Robotics’ dual-use approach to autonomy.

The autonomous industry’s losing streak is growing as Teamsters-backed legislation passes committee after committee in California.

Capital markets that have been freezing out mobility startups may be thawing with Aurora Innovation raising $820 million in new funding.

Kodiak Robotics and Drivewyze are working with Texas authorities to make it easier for autonomous trucks to bypass weigh stations.

After months of turmoil and an inability to regain meaningful momentum, TuSimple looks at selling its U.S. operations.

After originally working with TuSimple, Loadsmith picks Kodiak Robotics for autonomous driving systems.

The California State Assembly voted 54-3 to ban autonomous trucks without safety drivers from the state’s roadways.

Autonomous trucking software developer TuSimple will cut 300 more jobs and keep China operations it had planned to spin off or sell.

Autonomous trucking software developer TuSimple will disappear from the Nasdaq on Monday as it is delisted for financial filings failure.

Kodiak Robotics bought a Peterbilt Model 579EV to marry its autonomous system with electric propulsion. It is using the truck in testing.

Tracking trailer inventory was always part of Outrider’s autonomous distribution yard plan. Now, it is happening.

Aurora Innovation and Continental AG are partnering to build the Aurora Driver autonomous hardware to scale for the U.S. in 2027

Predictive maintenance analytics for autonomous trucks could provide a reverse benefit for human-driven trucks.

Driverless trucks have special needs that only humans can perform at terminals where they will drop and hook loads.

Aurora Innovation says being “feature complete” on its autonomous truck software puts it on target for driverless runs in 2024.

Settling multiple distractions surrounding TuSimple was Cheng Lu’s priority when he returned as CEO in November.

It’s been three months since TuSimple fired a quarter of its workforce. Three of those who survived the cuts talked with FreightWaves.

Even with multiple investigations to close, TuSimple has three years worth of money to run its autonomous trucking business.

Autonomous trucking runs are getting longer and more frequent as Kodiak Robotics and Forward Air begin thrice-weekly Dallas-to-Atlanta roundtrips.

TuSimple co-founder Xiaodi Hou says his ouster was retaliation for failing to support a pay package for the rehired CEO whom he replaced.

Gatik will move grocery loads autonomously from Kroger’s Dallas distribution center to its area grocery stores, starting with safety drivers.

TuSimple co-founder Xiaodi Hou quit the board at the autonomous trucking startup as the company investigated him for employee poaching.

In some rare good news for autonomous truck software developer TuSimple, the FMCSA closed a probe into a crash last April.

Autonomous truck convoy developer Locomation denied reports it is closing, but said it laid off most non-engineering employees.

Nikola customers will test Plus autonomy on the startup’s battery and fuel cell electric trucks this year and make it standard in 2024.

A cross-section of Industry experts offer thoughts on how transportation management systems will integrate with autonomous trucks.

The Wall Street Journal reported a federal watchdog group urged an espionage probe into TuSimple leaders, but the company denied the report.

James Reed is the new COO at autonomous truck startup Kodiak Robotics, possessing tech credentials unrivaled among trucking executives.

It is pretty much acknowledged across the trucking industry that a consolidation of players in autonomous trucking is coming.

Microsoft Corp. is reportedly near an investment in Gatik, the middle-mile autonomous trucking startup.

From a Netflix-worthy docudrama at TuSimple to dueling technology announcements, autonomous trucking took steps toward commercialization.

TuSimple cut 25% of its workforce that grew too fast following the company’s public debut in 2021.

Uber Freight and Volvo Autonomous Solutions are stressing patience over hype in working to digitally schedule loads for the truckmaker’s one-stop shop for all things autonomy.

The approach of Cummins Inc. to hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines is very different from how and when it talks about most of its products.

The Wall Street Journal reports multiple federal probes of TuSimple’s China dealings after a watchdog set up oversight in February.

After years of collaboration, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has figured out how to inspect autonomous trucks for safe operation.

Small fleets make up 90% of the nation’s carriers. Waymo Via and C.H. Robinson used beer runs to familiarize them with autonomous trucking.

Kodiak Robotics and Werner Enterprises completed a 152-hour autonomous freight trucking pilot between Dallas and Lake City, Florida.

How is it that California, the world’s fifth-largest economy and the state most autonomous trucking startups call home, refuses to allow commercial testing of the technology?

The second FreightWaves Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Summit will feature leaders in autonomy and all things electrification.

Locomation has an eight-year agreement with Stevens Trucking to operate autonomous relay convoys on four interstate routes.

Kodiak Robotics snagged a strategic investment and is developing an autonomous truck service project with Pilot Co.

Schneider is joining fleets testing highway autonomy, starting commercial pilots in supervised Aurora Innovation trucks this week.

With a long list of heavy-hitting customers that include Walmart, Loblaw and most recently Georgia-Pacific, Gatik has demonstrated that commercially successful autonomous delivery is happening first in a constrained environment, on fixed, repeatable short-haul routes.

Kodiak Robotics is taking a simpler approach to mapping highways for autonomy, focusing on connectivity over detail

Embark Trucks and BYD demonstrated what using electricity rather than diesel looked like in drayage with an autonomous truck.

Waymo Via will reserve billions of miles of future autonomous trucking routes for digital load matching by Uber Freight.

Volvo will work with DHL Supply Chain to test hub-to-hub autonomous trucking using Class 8 VNL tractors retrofitted by Aurora Innovation.

U.S. Xpress is tripling down on autonomy, adding Kodiak Robotics to pilots with Embark Trucks and TuSimple.

Ever willing to try something new, Werner Enterprises teams aligns with Aurora Innovation on 600-mile supervised autonomous freight runs in Texas.

Editor’s note: Corrects location of ride-hailing fleet to Dallas-Fort Worth instead of Arizona Aurora Innovation has added a 600-mile autonomous route between Fort Worth and El Paso, Texas, testing its Aurora Driver Beta 2.0 lane on the middle leg between Atlanta and Los Angeles, one of the nation’s busiest commercial freight thoroughfares. The new-generation Peterbilt […]

Gatik’s Gautam Narang will be an industry keynoter at The Future of Supply Chain event.