Autonomous driving technology startup TuSimple is ready to put the driverless in driverless technology.
The company said Tuesday that Union Pacific Railroad – the largest Class I railroad in the U.S. – will become the first customer to move freight on TuSimple's fully-automated trucking route between the Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona metro areas this Spring.
Union Pacific Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales Kenny Rocker said partnering with TuSimple allows his company to extend operations beyond its rail hubs and serve customers faster and more efficiently, providing Union Pacific with "significant opportunity to scale the technology in our network, proactively reducing global supply chain congestion."
TuSimple completed what is believed to be the world's first Driver Out semi-truck run last year and has since recorded an additional six successful fully autonomous runs – the most recent of which took place last month. The seven total runs covered over 550 cumulative miles on open public roads without a human in the vehicle, without any teleoperation and without any traffic intervention. Runs were conducted in various roadway conditions, including dense early-evening traffic and "back-to-back" runs on the same night.
Going forward, TuSimple plans to continue its "Driver Out" program and progressively expand its scope to incorporate daytime runs and new routes while making regular improvements to its proprietary AV technology. By the end of next year, TuSimple plans to achieve commercial viability by initiating continuous Driver Out paid freight operations in a significant shipping area such as "the Texas Triangle", which consists of Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio.
