Autonomous trucks

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

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

On Thursday, self-driving trucking company Kodiak Robotics and Pilot Co. opened their first truckport for autonomous vehicles at the Pilot Travel Center in Villa Rica, Georgia. According to the news release, the truckport will be used by Kodiak to launch and land its autonomous trucks and serve as a hub for drivers to pick and drop off loads for first- and last-mile deliveries.

The saga of less-than-truckload carrier Yellow may be coming to a close based on reporting that Yellow’s senior vice president of sales told staff their last day would be this Friday, and that the carrier would file for bankruptcy on Monday.

Torc Chief Strategy Officer Andrew Culhane chats with FreightWaves’ Thomas Wasson in this Enterprise Fleet Summit fireside chat about the strategies used to integrate new technologies.

Consulting firm Kearney recently released its 34th annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) report, “State of Logistics 2023: The Great Reset.” A major theme of the report is the great rebalancing from the carrier-dominated market of the past two years to a shipper-focused one as freight volumes fell against a backdrop of higher truckload capacity. The report notes that total U.S. logistics costs rose 19.6% in 2022 to a record $2.3 trillion or 9.1% of U.S. gross domestic product.

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

Embark Technology, an early leader in autonomous trucking software development, becomes part of Applied Intuition in a $71 million deal.

Your latest info on all things cold chain

Kodiak has taken big steps along its commercialization journey with new carrier partnerships and advancements in its self-driving trucking technology.

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

Kodiak Robotics was shooting for easier maintenance of its autonomous trucks but it made them appear more normal in the process.

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

Driverless truck-tech companies say their equipment is as safe — or safer — than traditional devices used to warn the public of trucks stopped on the highway.

Q4 Market Update and Outlook: Highlights from Uber Freight’s Q4 Market Update Report

Congress and the Biden administration will aim to advance trucking policy despite the potential gridlock of divided government.

CEO and founder Don Burnette says “2022 stood as the year that Kodiak really built momentum and gained the trust of the industry.”

The growing severity of the driver shortage, combined with a shrinking number of predictable and set routes and increasing customer demands, is putting the spotlight once again on autonomous trucks.

Lingering questions about how autonomous trucks will work on the road drove DHL Supply Chain to partner with Embark, which is focused on the “nitty-gritty” details of self-driving technology.

Einride has raised $500 million through a combination of equity and debt financing, giving it more funding to accelerate deployment of its autonomous and electric vehicles.

A theme emerges as you look around the electrification and autonomous trucking space. Practically no one does it alone.

The Future of Autonomous Trucks in Freight

DHL and autonomous truck operator Embark discuss their partnership and the last hurdles for rolling out automated trucks.

Embark Trucks is expanding into several key markets to create a coast-to-coast autonomous trucking network of transfer locations.

A permanent replacement for TuSimple CEO Xiaodi Hou is expected soon as the company chairman and the ousted founder exchange barbs.

America’s top truck safety regulator provides insight into what will be important at her federal agency as she closes in on a year in the driver’s seat.

FMCSA recruits truck drivers

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

Federal regulators will use a simulator experiment to assess driver distraction in automated trucks.

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?

Thomas Wasson and Shawn Kerrigan, co-founder of Plus, discussed the company’s future strategy at FreightWaves’ virtual Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Summit on Wednesday.

FreightWaves’ Alan Adler sits down with the co-founder and CEO of Kodiak Technologies to discuss autonomy in trucking.

Uber Freight executive Olivia Hu joins chat about the advancement of the autonomous trucking industry during FreightWaves’ Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Summit.

ACT Research’s Ann Rundle discusses policy implications for autonomous and electric trucks at FreightWaves’ one-day summit.

While the focus is on Gatik’s self-driving technology, plenty of work goes on behind the scenes to secure state approvals for on-road operation.

Pitney Bowes is the second major customer in Texas to deploy Gatik’s Class 6 autonomous trucks.

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

Cummins will integrate Gatik’s autonomous vehicle technology with its own drive-by-wire software for use on Isuzu Class 6 FTR box trucks using Cummins’ B6.7 engine.

TuSimple CEO Xiaodi Hou responded to a federal safety investigation that raised concerns about a potential setback to its driverless truck technology.

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

The management shakeup at TuSimple has become a full management house cleaning. Hyliion sees early benefits following Cummins’ partnership.

The company marked its progress by submitting its Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment to the U.S. Department of Transportation for public disclosure on how Locomation is addressing safety and its readiness for public road testing.

By Justine Hu and Finch Fulton Hu was an External Affairs and Policy Intern and is a current student at Carnegie Mellon’s Public Policy and Management graduate program.Fulton is Vice […]

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

KBX Logistics is using 26-foot autonomous trucks from Gatik to replace some Class 8 routes in Texas.

Gatik founder and CEO Gautam Narang said autonomous middle-mile trucks can replace traditional Class 8 tractor-trailers along fixed, repeatable routes.

Is a bigger battery on wheels the best way to make autonomous trucks more efficient? Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies thinks so.

Locomation expects to be the first company to deploy autonomous trucking technology safely, legally and routinely in commercial operations at scale across the United States, starting next year.

CEO Brett Suma is optimistic about rolling out Loadsmith’s autonomous middle-mile offering between select origin and destination pairings.

DHL is talking to customers about sustainability and measuring emissions, DHL Supply Chain’s Jason Gillespie said during this episode of Net-Zero Carbon.

Automated trucks and buses are expected to number 1.2 million annually by 2032 compared with about 1,000 in testing today.

As robots take over for human drivers, will they raise or lower the risk of tire blowouts that claim dozens of lives in truck crashes every year?

While innovation in the autonomous space is moving at breakneck speed, Locomation has devised a way to help trucking companies re-engineer their operating models to begin seeing major efficiency gains even before they deploy autonomous trucks.

Average speed reductions in pedestrian AEB tests

Nonbinding reservations from fleets hit 7,325 as 2021 revenues grow to $6.3 million

Aurora Innovation is trying to prove it has thought through issues surrounding autonomous trucking as it targets late 2023 to launch its Horizon system.

It is important to recognize that the introduction of autonomous vehicles is not the beginning of the end for drivers.

The second-biggest day of eating, autonomous truck routes here to stay, and Canada is open again, except in two places.

Self-driving technology startup Waabi has introduced its Waabi World simulator, a technology that company founder Raquel Urtasun said is able to “teach” autonomous vehicles how to drive in a safer manner.

Embark Trucks’ connection with Knight-Swift will lead to the installation of high-autonomy software by the end of 2022.

Driver as a service: J.B. Hunt becomes Waymo’s first self-driving freight customer, Commentary: The dangers of dwell, Market update: Outbound tender rejections decline amid rising spot rates

What is exciting for 2022, autonomous trucks make a big jump, Amazon shopping addicts by state, and FMCSA is hiring … again.

Struggling for capacity: A briefing on fleet availability The holiday season in trucking traditionally sees lower driver activity due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. The driver’s home time […]

What is exciting for 2022, autonomous trucks make a big jump, Amazon shopping addicts by state, and FMCSA is hiring … again.

TuSimple achieved its goal of sending a Class 8 truck with no one in the cab on a nighttime run along Interstate 10 in Arizona.

The Bay Area-based autonomous vehicle maker received an investment from TDK Ventures, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational electronics company TDK Corp.

Locomation earned high marks on a third-party environmental impact report conducted by Boundless Impact Research and Analytics last month.

AV manufacturers are quickly building evidence to prove the safety of autonomous driving technology.

Self-driving trucking company Embark plans to begin hauling freight for customers between Houston and San Antonio next year.

Even Before Autonomous Trucks, Fleets Can Double Their Capacity     By Tom Kroswek, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development In a previous post, I overviewed how the Autonomous Relay NetworkSM can help carriers and […]

The ARC system will reduce a truck’s GHG footprint by 22%, Operating Costs by 19%, and Fuel Consumption by 21% PITTSBURGH, PA—Locomation, a leading provider of autonomous trucking technology solutions, today announced the […]

By Dr. Çetin Meriçli, CEO and Co-founder of Locomation. Concerns about the nation’s supply-chain are making headlines and raising concerns from Main Street to the White House. Parents worry about not […]

Venture capital fund EQT Ventures is a backer of electric and autonomous vehicle maker Einride, but it is also a supporter of sustainable business models.

Ree Automotive has unveiled a blank-canvas autonomous vehicle design to last-mile delivery operations.

Infrastructure bill and trucking impact On Nov. 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) by a 228-206 vote after passage by […]

Autonomous trucking software developer Kodiak Robotics raises $125 million in new capital after passing on going public via SPAC.

Serial SPAC creator Hennessy Capital and Plus cancel their merger, likely over Chinese technology regulations that could carry over to U.S. business.

Autonomous trucks hauling freight for Walmart are running with no driver in the seat in Arkansas, says autonomous vehicle company Gatik.

Truck Talk is a weekly newsletter offering perspective, context and insight into issues in the commercial truck ecosystem.

Einride has been running its autonomous freight Pods in Europe since 2019, but founder and CEO Robert Falck has high hopes for the company’s entry to the U.S. “It is such a great challenge and I’m really excited. This U.S. freight transportation community is the most competitive in the world,” he said.

Redeploying drivers to get loads to and from transfer hubs promises huge savings, according to a Ryder System-funded study with Georgia Tech.

In the disruptive world of autonomous trucking, TuSimple says it has to haul freight to prove the technology works.

FMCSA’s Meera Joshi is taking on multiple trucking issues.

Representatives from both sides of the aisle and company executives convened in a webinar hosted by the Consumer Technology Association.

With 14,200 reservations for its autonomous trucking software, Embark Trucks predicts it will surpass the first-year revenue target.

Five of 16 challenges to removing the driver from Embark’s high-autonomy truck remain, but a ride-along shows how much the startup has already mastered.

NHTSA details new crash-data reporting requirements for self-driving trucks.

New-generation autonomous trucks are losing their Frankenstein’s monster image thanks to better-packaged technology designs.

Learn how technology and automation can help maximize profits and strengthen your partner relationships at MyBlueGrace.com

Former government safety officials now have investments and profits to keep in mind as they help their companies chart a course for autonomous vehicles.

“We see Locomation’s autonomous technology as a win-win situation for both our older and younger drivers,” said Hickly.

Most often, hesitation surrounding autonomous vehicles centers on cost and safety concerns. Locomation set out to address these pain points with a phased approach.

Fleet and logistics provider Ryder System Inc. follows TuSimple deal with a partnership with Waymo Via.

TuSimple Holdings trading approached three times its daily average on lockup expiration. Shares posted a small gain after tumbling for six weeks.

By Tom Kroswek Vice President, Strategy & Business Development Tom Kroswek is a logistics and engineering professional with 30+ years of experience in supply chain engineering, transportation analysis, inbound manufacturing […]

Not to be a Luddite, but a world of trucker-free trucks is going to mean some minor trade-offs, including fleeting bouts of creepiness.

Autonomous trucks without human drivers are still years away, but Plus shows what is possible on an open road in China.

To discuss the ways that shippers and carriers can prepare their supply chains for fully autonomous trucking in 2021, FreightWaves is partnering with Locomation for a one-hour webinar starting at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 10. Featured speakers include Locomation’s Çetin Meriçli, CEO and Co-founder, Tom Kroswek, VP of Business Development & Strategy, and Glynn Spangenberg, Chief Commercial Officer.

TuSimple will use Ryder System maintenance terminals as it expands its autonomous freight network from Arizona to Florida by year-end.