Washington, DC
Cnn
–
Driver-free trucks officially operate their first regular long-haul routes, going back and forth between Dallas and Houston.
On Thursday, the autonomous trucking company Aurora announced its launch of a sales service in Texas in its first customers, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which offers a frequent freight to time and temperature. The two companies have carried out tests With Aurora, including Safety drivers to monitor the Autonomous technology nicknamed “Aurora Driver”. Aurora’s new sales service will no longer have security drivers.
“We founded Aurora to offer the advantages of autonomous technology safely, quickly and in general, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, in a statement on Thursday.” Now we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a driver -free commercial truck service on public roads. “”
The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of more than four football fields. In four years of practice High truck technology has delivered more than 10,000 customer charges. Thursday, the company’s autonomous technology completed more than 1,200 miles without human in the truck.
Aurora begins with a single autonomous truck and plans to add more by the end of 2025.
Autonomous driving technology continued to draw attention after more than a decade of media threshing, in particular automobile companies like Tesla, GM and others that have paid billions into technology. Companies on the trucking or autonomous driving market tend to use states such as Texas and California as technology test fields.
Gatik, based in California, made deliveries to Courts-Haul for the retailers of fortune 500 like Walmart. Another California technology company, Kodiak Robotics, delivers freight for southern customers daily, but with safety drivers. Waymo, a subsidiary of the mother company of Google Alphabet, had an autonomous truck arm but dismantled it in 2023 to focus on its self-commissioned services.
However, consumers and transport managers have raised alarms on the safety record for autonomous vehicles. Aurora has published its own security report detailing this year this year operation of its technology.
Unions representing truck drivers are generally opposed to driverless technology due to the threat of Job loss and safety concerns.
Earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rejected a petition for autonomous driving companies Waymo and Aurora seeking to replace the traditional warning devices used when a truck broke down by beacons mounted on CAB. The Transport Workers’ Union argued that the petition would hinder security.
