Autonomous Delivery Hits the Road

If Aurora Innovation is to be believed, the future may have arrived. It recently collaborated with trucking company Schneider National to create a pilot program for autonomous freight hauling for Schneider’s customers.

Whether it’s the self-driving semis from “I, Robot” or the self-driving Johnny Cab taxi from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall,” the long-teased promise of driverless technology has always seemed out of reach.

The pilot program, which will use Aurora Driver, Aurora’s self-driving technology, promises to alleviate driver shortages, eliminate slow deliveries, and eliminate supply chain bottlenecks. Integrated software then plans a safe path through the conditions using sensors that detect road conditions, other vehicles, and the general spatial state around the truck. Onboard computers process the data and use it to guide the vehicle along the road. Aurora Driver is designed to adapt to a wide range of vehicle types and use cases, enabling Aurora to bring the benefits of self-driving to a variety of industries, including long-haul trucking and local material delivery.

It’s a future that trucking companies would love to see come true, and one that could greatly benefit the LBM industry as a whole as it strives to deliver expected levels of customer service while facing unprecedented labor shortages. “Learning more about an autonomous future is the logical next step in building a network that continues to provide the best service for our customers,” said Rob Reich, Schneider’s executive vice president and chief administrative officer.

According to Aurora, autonomous trucking has the potential to benefit industries such as LBM manufacturers and dealers.

• Self-driving trucks can reduce accidents and save lives because they never tire or become distracted.
• The technology will enable fleet owners to transform their operations with autonomous drivers, filling the driver gap they are currently experiencing and scaling to meet the increased business they will be able to fulfill in the future.
• Breaks are unnecessary for self-driving semis. Autonomous trucks can operate nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Self-driving trucks have the potential to improve fuel efficiency by up to 10%, resulting in cost savings and lower CO2 emissions.

Aurora’s fourth commercial pilot program, with Schneider, allows one of the industry’s largest carriers to play a critical role in testing and validating Aurora’s product and service. “The sheer number of Fortune 500 customers attests to Schneider’s reputation for delivering consistent and reliable service,” says Sterling Anderson, Aurora’s co-founder and chief product officer. “Preparing Aurora Horizon for prime-time with Schneider springloads increases our ability to scale our product in the coming years.”

Aurora has also piloted with FedEx, autonomously hauling FedEx loads daily between Aurora’s Dallas and Houston terminals, as well as weekly between its Fort Worth and El Paso terminals. According to Aurora, it delivered over 335 loads in Q2 while driving over 80,000 miles, with 100% on-time performance and no cancellations.
Aurora will continue to focus on releasing additional self-driving capabilities throughout the rest of 2022 and into the first quarter of 2023 so that the company can soon begin transportation of commercial loads on the company’s initial commercial routes.

The pilot program is part of the company’s larger Aurora Horizon initiative, which is a subscription-based autonomous “driver-as-a-service” designed for carriers and fleet owners. Aurora Horizon, according to Aurora, is designed to supplement driver supply so that carriers and fleet owners can maximize the potential of their fleets and scale their business to meet increasing demand.

AUTONOMY AT SCALE: The Aurora Driver learns from each load it transports autonomously. The Aurora Driver’s experience grows in tandem with the scale of pilot programs.

VEHICLE READINESS: Weekly hauls allow Aurora to put its next-generation trucks to the test.