Driverless Big Rigs Are Coming to American Highways, and Soon

It looked like just another big rig rolling down a Texas interstate, a sight that inspired a thousand country songs.But this delivery last May was different, because there was no driver at the wheel.The operator, Aurora Innovation, said it was the first fully autonomous commercial trucking operation of its kind on U.S.

highways.The company’s runs between Dallas and Houston on the I-45 corridor quickly racked up 1,200 miles on the road for customers including FedEx and Uber Freight.But less than three weeks after they started, those history-making runs paused.Paccar, maker of the Peterbilt trucks on the route, asked that Aurora put a person back in the cab.

Aurora’s autonomous drives resumed, but with an “operator” (Aurora says its operators are less engaged than safety drivers would be) on board.Paccar declined to answer questions about why it had called a halt.There’s no question that finally putting driverless semi trucks into regular interstate runs will be a turning point for the industry.

A driver’s salary is 26 percent of the per-mile cost of operating a truck, Truckers Report says, while other studies have found it to be around 40 percent.Going driverless would result in considerable savings for the U.S.

freight-truck business, which generates more than $900 billion in annual revenue.An acute driver shortage — frequently mentioned as a motivation for going autonomous — is no longer a major factor in the United States, though some cite a global shortage last year of 3.6 million drivers.“Currently there is not a big U.S.

shortage,” said Bob Costello, chief economist at the American Trucking Associations.“We’ve seen demand fall so much in recent years.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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