Two weeks ago, SCDigest ran a story on two recent examples of progress in the autonomous truck market, including a significant test at GE Appliances and autonomous truck tlechnology maker TuSimple partnering with a major real estate firm to help make logistics faclity designs more friendly for driverless freight vehicles.
That story is repeated below.
But last week there was more positive new from TuSimple, which announced that it had recently made seven fully autonomous truck trips using its driverless technology between Phoenix and Tuscon
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| Add it all up, and maybe just maybe the auto truck era really is near. |
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The trips were taken under various road conditions, including dense early-evening traffic and back-to-back runs on the same night. Based on the success of these tests, rail carrier Union Pacific will use TuSimple equipped trucks to move freight between Tucson and Phoenix starting this spring, as Union Pacific is the company's first customer for autonomous trucking services.
Add it all up, and maybe just maybe the auto truck era really is near.
Original Story:
While to some the progress for autonomous, self-driving trucks may seem slow, news here and there regularly indicate the technology is moving steadily forward.
A couple of such news bites were in focus in the last week, starting with an update on a pilot of autonomous trucks to shuttle loads between buildings at the famous GE (now Haier) Appliance Park in Louisville.
The program was first announced last October, but an update was provided a few days ago.
The truck technology is provided by a Swedish company named Einride. Together, Einride and GE Appliances said last week that the program is the first autonomous and electric truck to operate on US soil. (Einride has run pilot programs in Sweden with 3PL DB Schenker, SKF, and Coca-Cola Europe.)
The trucks are driving in true autonomous mode, with no one else in the cockpit (but are frequently monitored remotely). In fact, designed to be autonomous from the start, there actually is nowhere for a driver to sit in the trucks.
The unusual looking trucks are called pods, and can be seen in the photo nearby. The pods move loads between buildings on the GE campus, with for now “pilots” from both companies keeping tabs on the trucks to ensure all is well – and safe.
If ever needed, the pods can also be remotely controlled by the technicians working at a remote workstation on the GE campus.
At the start, a single pilot monitored three vehicles, with a goal of having one pilot monitor up to 9 vehicles. GE says new age trucks are running about 60% true autonomous and 40% monitored, and goal of getting to 95% full automation.
 GE hopes to reduce total logistics costs and reduce CO2 emissions from the program.
"The autonomous and electric freight transportation system is much safer than traditional road freight, as safety is an integral part of every aspect of the design, and there are numerous safety systems in place," an Einride press release said.
As an example of how the system works, humans ay an injection molding plant on the campus load a pod with washing machine agitators. A pod then driverlessly moves to another facility where washing machines are assembled, and backs into a loading dock. The agitators are unloaded, and the now empty pod returns to the original plant for reloading.
You can click here to watch a YouTube video of the pods in action.
(See Mor Below)
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 Meanwhile autonomous truck system maker TuSimple and a partner announced plans last week for construction of a new freight depot to work with its technology.
TuSimple does not make full autonomous trucks, but rather offers driverless technology that can be added to existing trucks. In December, the company announced the test of its Autonomous Driving System (ADS) in which it navigated a truck for 100% of an 80-mile trip that included surface streets and highway driving between a railyard in Tuscon, Arizona and an undisclosed distribution center in Phoenix – taking place with no human intervention.
Now, the company says it is partnering with Hillwood Investment Properties, one of US’ the largest commercial real estate developers, under which TuSimple will provide insight on how to incorporate the needs of autonomous trucks into current and future logistics facilities by sharing TuSimple’s infrastructure specifications.
Hillwood expects to be able to host autonomous trucking operations at a 1 million-square-foot facility under construction within its huge Alliance Texas Mobility Innovation Zone off Interstate 35 near Fort Worth Alliance Airport. When completed in 2024, the facility is intended to serve Level 4 high-autonomy trucks with no humans in the cab.
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TuSimple’s Autonomous Freight Network, which runs from Tucson, Arizona, to Florida and North Carolina, will use logistics services firm Ryder’s facilities for autonomous truck maintenance.
It is also partnering to create freight terminals, saying that having properly equipped terminals makes a shipping yard more efficient for automated drop-and-hook and other trailer shifting operations, TuSimple says.
The Autonomous Freight Network consists of autonomous trucks, digital mapped routes, strategically placed terminals, and TuSimple Connect, the company’s autonomous operations monitoring system.
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