Self-driving trucks have started traveling between the Metroplex and Houston. Volvo Autonomous Solutions has started launching trucks from a terminal along Interstate 45 in Palmer, south of Dallas.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions started work in 2020 with 400 employees. The group says its work started with a focus on autonomous mining in Norway.
"The Holy Grail of autonomous is long haul trucking," says Sasko Cuklev, V.A.S. head of on-road solutions. "That is our responsibility here. We are starting in Texas, so this is really the hub for autonomous. This is where it will happen. This is where we built our office. This is where we will grow. This is where we will create new jobs."
Volvo is working with Aurora Innovation, a software company developing computer systems that can be integrated into trucks.
"We're doing something innovative and new," says Aurora Director of Organizational Safety Lindsey Loewen. "We have to demonstrate we have met the safety expectations of our partners, customers and the traveling public."
Loewen says its safety plan was broken into five goals. He says the truck had to understand "credible scenarios" it might encounter on the road and be "failsafe" responding to things that may go wrong.
"If we have a plastic bag that's loose and goes right on one of those LiDARs, it would know it's in a degraded state and execute a minimum risk maneuver," he says.
He says the safety plan also includes continuous improvement. After a truck left for Houston, Loewen said the rig would learn from its experience.
"The Aurora driver is going to see things, and it needs to be able to learn from those things," he says. Loewen says Aurora would then add those lessons to its database to train the system on how to respond to things like a person running a red light or a lane closure.
Loewen says trucks must also be "resilient" against threats and trustworthy.
Before each trip, V.A.S. says trucks go through an inspection to ensure they are roadworthy. V.A.S. says four trucks are working along I-45 now, and the company plans to launch another 16 by the end of the year.
Currently, each truck makes trips with a safety driver. Once a review board takes a look at operations with the driver, the company could remove the safety driver and work toward using the trucks in more areas.
"I've ridden in one," says Alan Oakley, head of field operations for Volvo Autonomous Solutions. "I felt very safe. I can tell you it was appropriately boring. It did everything you would expect it to do."
During the demonstration, Aurora showed a video of a truck stopping at an intersection when another car ran a red light. The company says it creates simulations of "rare on-road events" using NHTSA statistics to challenge the system's performance. If the truck hits a situation where it does not know how to behave, it will make a "minimal risk maneuver" such as slowing down or moving to the shoulder.
The company says it uses redundant computer, communication, steering and brake systems. Aurora says it also looks at the types of credible cyber threats that could be made against the system as well as potential threats against physical infrastructure.
"We have evidence for how hardened the system needs to be against actual hijacking. That's not just cyber, that's also physical, how hardened the terminals need to be from people getting in," says Aurora's Loewen.
Driverless trucks are used on Interstate 45 between a terminal in Palmer, south of Dallas, and in northern Houston. V.A.S. says the trucks are not currently moving through heavily populated areas.