Driverless trucks are expected to be in limited use on some US interstates as early as late 2024. Their software developers are increasingly concerned with how they will be maintained between trips.
Aurora Innovation appears to be the most advanced in terms of inspections, fueling maintenance, and automated landing and launch of self-driving Class 8 trucks. An unremarkable frontage road location in Palmer, Texas, south of Dallas, is being transformed into a terminal capable of performing tasks that autonomous trucks cannot perform on their own.
Apart from driving, that is pretty much it.
Aurora has a fully operational terminal for self-driving trucks.
“We have delivered a fully functional commercial AV terminal, and we believe it is a leading AV terminal due to [its] capabilities,” Aurora vice president of service delivery Kendra Phillips told FreightWaves. “It uses traditional methods such as maintenance to increase fleet uptime.” However, it has capabilities that you may not always notice, such as fueling and weighing.
“A [human] driver pulls off the highway, takes 30 minutes to go get fuel, gets a snack, takes a break, and then comes back on,” Phillips explained. “That’s not going to happen. Our trucks will continue to run once they reach the highway.”
Aurora trucks currently transport 50 loads per week on Interstate 45 between Dallas and Houston for customers such as FedEx, Schneider, and Uber Freight. They are programmed to drive themselves from the freeway off-ramp to the South Dallas terminal’s landing pad. A safety driver in the cab continues to monitor the trucks.
“They are not required to touch or do anything. They’re still in the truck, but our goal is for them not to be involved at this point,” Phillips explained.
When a truck exits autonomous mode, the exterior lighting changes color to indicate that approaching the truck is safe.
Humans do everything for a self-driving truck.
For the time being, safety drivers are part of a team that prepares the truck for delivery to a launch pad where a human approves the return to autonomous mode. Drop and hook, sensor calibration, maintenance, and inspection of the newly coupled tractor and trailer are all functions.
Aurora claims that the process usually takes less than an hour. The goal is to significantly reduce this, particularly when the terminal is busy.
“We’ll notify the terminal that a truck is on its way,” Phillips said. “If there is a lot of volume coming in at the same time, we can also sequence those trucks as they arrive.”
Maintenance functions still require improvement, according to Phillips, who joined Aurora a year ago from Ryder System Inc. Phillips worked at Ryder for 16 years, serving as chief technology officer and previously as head of operations.
Ryder serves as a common denominator.
She played a key role in Ryder forming alliances with several autonomous trucking startups, including Aurora, TuSimple, Embark Trucks, and Waymo Via. Embark is closing its doors because it was unable to raise new capital. Waymo Via and TuSimple continue to collaborate with Ryder.
“We recently retrenched, so we don’t anticipate substantial terminal growth in the near future,” TuSimple spokesperson Megan Strader told FreightWaves.
TuSimple plans to launch a single driverless route between Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona late next year. It’s the same route it tried out in December 2021. TuSimple maintained terminals in Fort Worth and North Houston, but it has ceased most of its loss-making freight-hauling operations in Texas. There is also a terminal in Tucson. Ryder stated that it has no active engagement due to TuSimple’s reduced footprint and operations.
Waymo Via was cut as part of a broader reduction in “other bets” at Google parent Alphabet Inc.
“As our primary maintenance partner, Ryder continues to play an integral role for Waymo Via,” Waymo Via head of commercialization Charlie Jatt told FreightWaves. “We continue to learn from one another and investigate additional services on which we can collaborate to support our testing operations and eventual commercial deployment.”
Competitors investigating terminal options
Torc Robotics, a Daimler Truck subsidiary, sees numerous options for terminals, also known as transfer hubs. Charging stations for localized battery-electric drayage fleets could be included. Could they withstand increased CVSA inspections, as Embark did with Knight-Swift?
“Torc is currently working with a range of fleets to better understand the benefits and drawbacks of each different operating model,” Torc’s head of strategy, Nick Elder, told FreightWaves. “Ultimately, we believe that all of these concepts have a future in autonomous truck operations.”
Kodiak Robotics is also looking for the best terminal match. For the time being, this includes piggybacking its requirements at customer terminals and maintenance facilities. Kodiak announced its first terminal in Atlanta in August, in collaboration with Pilot Co.
“We’ve had conversations with partners like Pilot about how they can best adapt existing facilities to serve as truck ports and have had some initial discussions with our customers about how they can best accommodate launching and landing our trucks in the future,” Kodiak CEO Don Burnette told FreightWaves.
Gatik claims that no terminals are required for short-haul operations.
Gatik Inc., which transports groceries and other consumer goods from distribution centers to stores for customers such as Walmart and Canada’s largest grocery chain, Loblaw Co. Ltd., does not require land-and-launch terminals for its mostly Class 6 autonomous truck operation, according to spokesman Richard Steiner.
“Our solution is integrated directly into our customers’ hub-and-spoke networks, so no additional autonomous trucking terminals are required,” he said. “Gatik’s exclusive focus on short-haul B2B logistics enables us to offer an end-to-end autonomous solution.”
Terminals are busy places with a lot of moving parts, according to Aurora’s Phillips. They will be operated by humans for an extended period of time. Aurora’s Houston location will be renovated first, followed by Fort Worth and El Paso facilities. Aurora anticipates beginning driverless operations between South Dallas and Houston early next year.
“We’re fine with having humans drive that for a variety of reasons,” she explained. “We need humans in the terminal for a lot of the activities anyway.” I don’t see their involvement as a negative.”
