Texas highways welcome first wave of self-driving freight trucks

[zohaibahd]

What just happened? Drivers cruising along I-45 between Dallas and Houston may soon spot semi-trucks with no one behind the wheel. Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation is launching fully driverless operations along this busy 200-mile stretch.

According to Axios, the company plans to start with a single autonomous truck and gradually expand its operations. The rollout marks one of the first real-world deployments of driverless freight trucks on public roads – something long promised but rarely delivered at scale.

Texas has emerged as the unofficial proving ground for this technology, thanks to its extensive freight corridors, business-friendly regulations, and generally predictable weather. Several companies aim to launch fully autonomous trucks in the state by 2026, but Aurora is gaining an early lead. Kodiak Robotics, another key player in the space, has already logged over 750 driverless hours – although only on private tracks in West Texas so far.

The push for driverless trucking comes as the industry faces mounting challenges. High driver turnover, rising operational costs, and a growing labor shortage are straining the supply chain. In this context, autonomous trucks are increasingly viewed as a critical solution to maintain the flow of goods efficiently.

Advocates say these trucks offer a clear financial advantage. Without drivers, trucks can operate around the clock and potentially reduce operating costs per mile by as much as 42 percent, even after accounting for the cost of the technology and remote monitoring centers, according to a McKinsey analysis.

Still, concerns are mounting among traditional drivers. Groups representing owner-operators argue that allowing unmanned vehicles on highways without federal safety regulations is risky. They also worry that experienced human drivers face stricter regulations than these new autonomous rigs, fueling concerns about fairness and safety on the roads.

Despite the pushback, momentum behind the technology continues to grow. McKinsey estimates that by 2035, about 13 percent of heavy-duty trucks on US roads could be fully autonomous.

Aurora isn't alone in advancing self-driving trucks. It's joined by industry heavyweights like Volvo and Daimler. Volvo's VNL Autonomous, which integrates Aurora's technology, is already slated for production in Virginia. Meanwhile, Daimler, through its subsidiary Torc Robotics, is testing Level 4 autonomous Freightliner Cascadia trucks in Texas, with a goal of commercial deployment by 2027.

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Texas highways welcome first wave of self-driving freight trucks

 

[Theinsanegamer]

They really are determined to put everyone out of a job, aren't they?

 

[yRaz]

They really are determined to put everyone out of a job, aren't they?

well lets roll with it until the end game of "who are you going to sell to when no one has any money?"

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Autonomous trucking will lower the cost of almost all goods benefitting everyone.

The rollout will be slow enough that current truckers won’t be impacted that much due to natural attrition, but don't go to trucker university today.

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

They really are determined to put everyone out of a job, aren't they?

So are you okay with truck drivers instead horse drawn carts for moving goods around? . Or for that matter, using horse drawn carts instead human porters? More seriously, modern civilization is built around machines replacing human labor, this is just one more step.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

So are you okay with truck drivers instead horse drawn carts for moving goods around? . Or for that matter, using horse drawn carts instead human porters? More seriously, modern civilization is built around machines replacing human labor, this is just one more step.

Both things you quoted still required humans to be involved.

Modern civilization is hell bent on automating away jobs while providing no alternatives for employment. People are having serious trouble getting by already, this will only make it worse.

Autonomous trucking will lower the cost of almost all goods benefitting everyone.

The rollout will be slow enough that current truckers won’t be impacted that much due to natural attrition, but don't go to trucker university today.

The price of goods wont matter when you have no income because everything is automated.

 

[lonetac]

Autonomous trucking will lower the cost of almost all goods benefitting everyone.

The rollout will be slow enough that current truckers won’t be impacted that much due to natural attrition, but don't go to trucker university today.

Predicting anything will lower the cost of goods is a hard sell. Nothing, no improvement, no technology, absolutely nothing will lower the cost of goods.

It will only drive larger profits. Prices never go backwards. Covid prices never resided, inflation doesnt go down in healthy economies, temporary increases are always permanent.

They didnt go down with automation, they didnt go down with self check outs, they didnt go down with factory robots, etc.

I am not fooled one bit by it will lower prices. Ive been alive long enough to recognize that lie.

 

[axiomatic13]

Everybody calm down. This venture is going to go down in flames, literally. Probably some dead too. Texas drivers are the worst. It's going to be an arrogant driver that cuts off one of these trucks, not knowing it's unmanned. Boom, crash, lots of screaming, oh the huge manatee.

 

[DrSuess]

I'm really not that comfortable with something as large as a semi autonomously controlling it self.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Predicting anything will lower the cost of goods is a hard sell. Nothing, no improvement, no technology, absolutely nothing will lower the cost of goods.

It will only drive larger profits. Prices never go backwards. Covid prices never resided, inflation doesnt go down in healthy economies, temporary increases are always permanent.

They didnt go down with automation, they didnt go down with self check outs, they didnt go down with factory robots, etc.

I am not fooled one bit by it will lower prices. Ive been alive long enough to recognize that lie.

Most goods and/or the parts that make up those goods move on trucks. That cost HAS to be added into the final price. Reduce trucking costs and the savings could go to profit or reduce prices so which will it be...

The part missing from the evil corporations always just increase profits narrative are all the other evil companies. Make something that makes only your own products cheaper then you get to drive higher prices (or lower prices and increase market share). Make something that other companies buy to make their products cheaper: Now it's the industry standard "best practice" that is competed away and prices go down for everyone.

Take robo-trucks. The first companies that replace truckers with workers get to grab that sweet extra profit, but as soon as everyone has them it only takes one greedy company to want to make one extra sale for more money that drops their price a bit... and soon prices are driven down across the board.

The best part is that it is the greed of the companies creating robo-trucks to sell and make that evil money that lowers prices for everyone. See (true) free market capitalism works so well because people acting in their own self interest do things to benefit others.

Now politicians are great at making up stories about how economies work and how they should work better and could work better if you just elect them and give them the power to intervene. Don't believe their lie.

 

[AlexIL]

Anyone knows how Iranian revolution really started? Who ignited?
Anyone knows how Russian revolution started? Who ignited?

In Iran it was taxi drivers and merchants at Tehran bazaar. Initial spark that blew off the lid.

In Russian Empire it was cabbies and women in Petrograd. Initial spak that blew off the lid.

I laugh at amusing ignorance of elites sometimes. They literally creating a spark that will blow the lid.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Modern civilization is hell bent on automating away jobs while providing no alternatives for employment. People are having serious trouble getting by already, this will only make it worse.
The price of goods wont matter when you have no income because everything is automated.

Happily, I have developed skills beyond that of a driving while pulling a trailer (I also have that skill because of my motorsport hobbies) so I'm not that worried about robots or AI replacing me.

 

[BogdanR]

…See (true) free market capitalism works so well because people acting in their own self interest do things to benefit others.

Indeed! Especially when those people are controlling the market. See Nvidia and their current GPU lineup if in doubt.

 

[toooooot]

Replying to all the comments above, there must be a thoughtful work, hard work to create new jobs and help small businesses to appear and grow. There must be a system that pushes very hard not to cut some taxes for corporations but to let people find other ways to sustain themselves.

I do not see it. In fact, one thing I am sure about is that the next China made virus will kill most of our small businesses because they all will be closed while big industries like Hollywood are allowed to keep working.

 

[NumberNine]

Two Predictions from Nuevedomus:

1. Countless hotheaded drivers will be killed by these totally uncaring and unfeeling things.

2. Theives will find a way to spoof the signals for these trucks and hijack them.

 

[Kashim]

Don't worry, Trump will bring back all the bottom-of-the-barrel jobs like truck driving, asbestos installation, lead based painting for schools, clean coal (lol), and of course all the Blockbuster Video and Sears jobs too!

 

[Kashim]

This situation reminds of the time when ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft became popular. All the taxi drivers were up in arms about losing their jobs. This will probably end the same way with all the lard-*** truck drivers striking and rioting. Like anyone gives a crap about taxi drivers and truck drivers. There will come a day when garbage trucks will collect garbage autonomously too and no one will care about those people either.

There was a time when horse drawn carriages got replaced by automobiles. There was a time when big cities like London and New York had people whose only job was to light oil lamps throughout the city every night when the sun went down and then extinguish them at sunrise. Then came this crazy invention called electricity and they all lose their jobs. Do you think those people were happy about it? Of course not. It's called progress, deal with it.

 

[Kashim]

Two Predictions from Nuevedomus:

1. Countless hotheaded drivers will be killed by these totally uncaring and unfeeling things.

2. Theives will find a way to spoof the signals for these trucks and hijack them.

Those are some big predictions...

1. Countless? Yeah, I doubt it. A few morons will die of course and the truckers' union will make it sound like millions more will die and it's the end of the world unless every truck driver is immediately re-hired.

2. Nope. If that were true then ANYTHING autonomous could be just as easily hijacked. There's also this crazy new invention called GPS tracking, maybe you heard of it?

 

[dioholydiver]

They really are determined to put everyone out of a job, aren't they?

Being a truck driver ain't a career to afford a house etc.

 

[Str8Shot]

Autonomous trucking will lower the cost of almost all goods benefitting everyone.

The rollout will be slow enough that current truckers won’t be impacted that much due to natural attrition, but don't go to trucker university today.

Nonsense. You clearly haven’t been around long enough to understand that prices NEVER come down. EVER. It’s baked into the fact that we’re all operating with Private Central Banks “loaning” us depreciating money.

They ALWAYS promise that in the future the tech will be so cheap to manufacture everything will cost less. Even your can of Coke is now more than it was 5, 10, 20 years ago. I thought manufacturing tech got better and cheaper with each generation. It’s all a con…

 

[Kashim]

Nonsense. You clearly haven’t been around long enough to understand that prices NEVER come down. EVER. It’s baked into the fact that we’re all operating with Private Central Banks “loaning” us depreciating money.

They ALWAYS promise that in the future the tech will be so cheap to manufacture everything will cost less. Even your can of Coke is now more than it was 5, 10, 20 years ago. I thought manufacturing tech got better and cheaper with each generation. It’s all a con…

Depends who you talk to I suppose. If you ask Trump supporters they will tell you that everything was super expensive during the Biden administration, and super cheap now that the Orange Imbecile is back in power. Under Biden eggs were unaffordable and gasoline was $10/gallon, but now eggs are dirt cheap and gasoline is free!

 

[Tantor]

Don't worry, Trump will bring back all the bottom-of-the-barrel jobs like truck driving, asbestos installation, lead based painting for schools, clean coal (lol), and of course all the Blockbuster Video and Sears jobs too!

Truck driving is not a bottom-of-the-barrel job.

 

[Tantor]

Anyone knows how Iranian revolution really started? Who ignited?
Anyone knows how Russian revolution started? Who ignited?

In Iran it was taxi drivers and merchants at Tehran bazaar. Initial spark that blew off the lid.

In Russian Empire it was cabbies and women in Petrograd. Initial spak that blew off the lid.

I laugh at amusing ignorance of elites sometimes. They literally creating a spark that will blow the lid.

No. The the Russian revolution was a color revolution, heavily financed by Western elites. Lenin and Trotsky were 'injected' into post WW1 Russia with huge loads of cash specifically to foment revolution.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Nonsense. You clearly haven’t been around long enough to understand that prices NEVER come down. EVER. It’s baked into the fact that we’re all operating with Private Central Banks “loaning” us depreciating money.

They ALWAYS promise that in the future the tech will be so cheap to manufacture everything will cost less. Even your can of Coke is now more than it was 5, 10, 20 years ago. I thought manufacturing tech got better and cheaper with each generation. It’s all a con…

You are conflating inflation with efficiency.

"You clearly haven’t been around long enough to" see TVs, computers, and even cel phones become cheaper and cheaper. The "personal computer" was a revolution of making computers cheap enough for a normal family to own ONE. Now toddlers have their own devices. I have a PC attached to every TV in the house. A 32" TV used to be pricey, now that's relegated to 85+. Do you know we used to pay extra money to send a single text message?

Inflation is terrible and it is caused by central banks devaluing currency, but that is completely unrelated to technology increasing efficiency and bringing real prices down. In fact, the US government changed the consumer price index to include more products with lowering real prices to help hide the amount of real inflation (defined by money supply not prices) happening here.