Driverless trucks are now running Dallas - Houston

The technology is still severely limited in its capabilities, as you just pointed out, and the infrastructure doesn't exist yet for what it is capable of.

 

Dallas>>>>Houston>>>>>Dallas

Dallas>>>>Memphis>>>>Dallas

Companies claim they need automated trucks because they can't find drivers to do these easy runs with regular predictable turnaround times.

 

The first driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes

Alexandra Skores, CNN

Thu, May 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM CDT


Interior of one of Aurora's driverless trucks. - Courtesy Aurora

Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston.

On Thursday, autonomous trucking firm Aurora announced it launched commercial service in Texas under its first customers, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies conducted test runs with Aurora, including safety drivers to monitor the self-driving technology dubbed “Aurora Driver.” Aurora’s new commercial service will no longer have safety drivers.

“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, in a release on Thursday. “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads.”

The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of over four football fields. In four years of practice hauls the trucks’ technology has delivered over 10,000 customer loads. As of Thursday, the company’s self-driving tech has completed over 1,200 miles without a human in the truck.

Aurora is starting with a single self-driving truck and plans to add more by the end of 2025.


One of Aurora's trucks on the road. - Courtesy Aurora

Self-driving technology continued to garner attention after over a decade of hype, especially from auto companies like Tesla, GM and others that have poured billions into the tech. Companies in the market of autonomous trucking or driving, tend to use states like Texas and California as their testing grounds for the technology.

California-based Gatik does short-haul deliveries for Fortune 500 retailers like Walmart. Another California tech firm, Kodiak Robotics, delivers freight daily for customers across the South but with safety drivers. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, had an autonomous trucking arm but dismantled it in 2023 to focus on its self-driving ride-hailing services.

However, consumers and transportation officials have raised alarms on the safety record of autonomous vehicles. Aurora released its own safety report this year detailing how its technology works.

Unions that represent truck drivers are usually opposed to the driverless technology because of the threat of job loss and concerns over safety.

Earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rejected a petition from autonomous driving companies Waymo and Aurora seeking to replace traditional warning devices used when a truck broke down with cab-mounted beacons. The Transport Workers Union argued the petition would hinder safety.

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Aurora launches commercial self-driving truck service in Texas

Rebecca Bellan

6:55 AM PDT · May 1, 2025


Image Credits:Aurora Innovation

Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation says it has successfully launched a self-driving truck service in Texas, making it the first company to deploy driverless, heavy-duty trucks for commercial use on public roads in the U.S.

The launch comes just as Aurora hits its deadline; in October, the company delayed its planned 2024 debut to April 2025. The debut also comes five months after rival Kodiak Robotics delivered its first autonomous trucks to a commercial customer for driverless operations in off-road environments.

Aurora says it began running freight this week between Dallas and Houston with its launch customers Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight, and that it has completed 1,200 miles in a single self-driving truck without a driver so far. The company plans to build up to “tens of self-driving trucks” and expand to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.

Aurora will also continue to haul “more than 100 loads of commercial freight” for customers every week with a fleet of more than 30 supervised autonomous trucks, according to a company spokesperson.

Aurora’s plan is to start its driverless trucking operations by owning, maintaining, and insuring its own trucks for customers. The company is working with its strategic partners Volvo Trucks and Paccar to develop self-driving trucks for high-volume manufacturing. Aurora expects its customers to buy those trucks directly from manufacturers starting in 2027 or earlier.

TechCrunch has reached out to learn whether the system has needed to implement a pullover maneuver or required remote human assistance, though CEO Chris Urmson said in a statement that the Aurora Driver “performed perfectly” during his inaugural trip.

Aurora’s commercial launch comes at a challenging time. Self-driving truck companies have long pitched the necessity of their technology due to labor shortages in long-haul trucking and an expected growth in freight shipping. Trump’s tariffs have changed that outlook, at least in the short term. According to an April report from commercial vehicle industry analysis firm ACT Research, freight is expected to decrease in the U.S. this year as volumes and consumer spending decline.

In response to how a freight pullback is expected to affect Aurora’s business, an Aurora spokesperson pointed out that trucking faces other challenges, including skyrocketing operating costs and underutilized assets.

Aurora will be reporting its first-quarter results next week, which is when it will also share how it expects the current trade war to affect its future business. TechCrunch has reached out to learn more about how tariffs affect Aurora’s business.

For now, Aurora will likely focus on continuing to prove its safety case without a driver, and work with state and federal legislators to adopt favorable policies to help it expand.

At the start of 2025, Aurora brought a suit against federal safety regulators after a court denied its request to be exempt from a safety requirement that involves placing warning triangles on the road when a truck needs to pull over on the highway — something that is difficult to do when there’s no driver in the vehicle.

In order to remain in compliance with that rule and still deploy a fully driverless service, it would make sense for Aurora to have a human-driven car trail its trucks whenever they’re in operation.

Rachel Chibidakis, an Aurora spokesperson, said the company did not require lead vehicles, chase vehicles, or police escorts for its driverless operations.

“In addition to our driverless trucks, we have supervised autonomous trucks that are delivering goods for customers everyday between Dallas and Houston,” Chibidakis said. “In the rare case a driverless truck encounters an issue and needs to pull over to the side of the road, a vehicle with vehicle operators won’t be far away.”

This article has been updated with more information and comments from an Aurora spokesperson.

 

The FMSCA rejected the idea of an emergency beacon in place of the three triangles. Wonder how they are getting around that..

 

No repeated pretripping misses a leaked wheel seal, the hub oil goes out and then over time you eventually have a tire fire moving at 65 miles per hour down the road.

 

For the time being, they're having someone in car follow the truck along its route. They'll probably find a better work-around at some point, but this type of obstacle is just the tip of the regulatory iceberg. If and when these autonomous trucks become more practical, that's when rural states with large numbers of truckers, Mississippi and Alabama for example, will start to take more action against them.

 

If or when an accident does occur, Lord willing that no one gets injured, crippled, paralyzed, or killed. More than likely, the main headquarters of the company owning the driverless truck would be the target of the lawsuit, or possible prosecution.

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

The absolute sheer driving force of our national economy - without truck drivers, our entire national economy would come to an absolute standstill - if not outright be dead.

Over the mountains, through the woods, into the valleys, coast to coast, from sea to shining sea - truck drivers can and do go anywhere and everywhere, every day, every night, all year round.

 

Autonomous trucks will be awesome in like 50 years. When I can sit at home and drink beer and dispatch my robots from my living room. Rake in the cash. Bring it on.