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Transportation

First Driverless Semis Have Started Running Regular Longhaul Routes (cnn.com) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the after-decades-of-hype dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes, making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston. On Thursday, autonomous trucking firm Aurora announced it launched commercial service in Texas under its first customers, Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines, which delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight. Both companies conducted test runs with Aurora, including safety drivers to monitor the self-driving technology dubbed "Aurora Driver." Aurora's new commercial service will no longer have safety drivers.

"We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly, said Chris Urmson, CEO and co-founder of Aurora, in a release on Thursday. "Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads." The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of over four football fields. In four years of practice hauls the trucks' technology has delivered over 10,000 customer loads. As of Thursday, the company's self-driving tech has completed over 1,200 miles without a human in the truck. Aurora is starting with a single self-driving truck and plans to add more by the end of 2025.

First Driverless Semis Have Started Running Regular Longhaul Routes More | Reply

First Driverless Semis Have Started Running Regular Longhaul Routes

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  • Dallas to Houston (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That's "long haul"?
    • Yup, fully automated long haul trucking is decades away. They need a whole lot more than self-driving trucks. They need weigh station automation, they need to figure out security, minor contingencies like blowing a tire, major contingencies, getting the paperwork good enough that it can be automated, including purchase and sales papers that currently need to be signed off by humans for security reasons, docking by voice, many ways a truck can accidentally drive on non-truck routes, etc etc.

      That said short

      • They also need to stop at a barricade, listen to what the cop says, communicate back to him, and follow instructions

        • All of this has already been accounted for and was in place. A lot of work went into getting this going, including working with local, state, and federal government agencies. It wasnâ(TM)t just the technical work that made the day.

          • I doubt it.

            Maybe authorities for the Houston to Dallas highway have special instructions on how to handle the single Aurora truck that plies the route. But if a cop has to communicate with many self-drive trucks of different types, how will these special procedures scale?

            Will self-drive truck understand the meaning of the cop barricading the highway with his car? Will it obey his hand-signals directing all traffic to take the off-ramp ? Will it read the illuminated sign that says "Accident Ahead - take Deto

      • The truck can have it's own 'weigh station' built-in, tire pressure monitoring (TPMS) is standard tech, also, Trucks have no spare tire and the driver is not equipped or able to change one anyway.
        The docking can be done by local drivers, just like ships in ports.

    • Everything is bigger in Texas dontchaknow.

    • Re:Dallas to Houston (Score:4, Interesting)

      by darkain ( 749283 ) on Saturday May 03, 2025 @12:10AM (#65348901) Homepage

      Dallas > Houston is a longer distance than Seattle > Portland.

      Its just barely long enough that a round trip w/ load/unload times might not be possible for a single driver in a single day due to length of day restrictions.

  • Oh good several million more unemployable people (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday May 03, 2025 @12:42AM (#65348945)
    I keep pointing this out but 70% of middle class jobs lost since the '80s got taken by automation not outsourcing.

    Every year a productivity increases but wages don't. Eventually the service sector economy will collapse. Remember folks all those blue collar jobs in plumbing and HVAC people keep saying are the bee's knees are service sector jobs. They depend on other consumers and workers able to pay for them.

    And there isn't any superfuturistic new jobs on the horizon to replace all the work we are automating. This isn't like buggy whip manufacturers going to work at the car factory. There is no car factory. There is no replacement job for what's being automated. It's not progress it's automation. So the usual thought terminating cliches don't apply.

    Something has to give and so far it looks like we're just going to descend into techno feudalism while a bunch of old people insist it's not happening.

    • And there isn't any superfuturistic new jobs on the horizon to replace all the work we are automating

      We're going to need a lot of Mars settlers. I'm sure the first attempts will lose all hands. The next group will be told the previous group hasn't filed any complaints, so they must really be enjoying themselves. No other job has zero complaints! Don't forget our generous 100K bonus at the end of your first year! All training performed in route. Sign up now, seats are limited. Follow Kate Perry into space.

    • The money people save from cheaper transportation of goods will help them move to a bigger house. Demand for more homes means the unemployed truck drivers can work in construction.

    • I see a future in robot repair and maintenance.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dvice ( 6309704 )

        Just like there is a future in TV repair? Or like there is future in car repair? Once the product becomes cheap enough, you don't repair it, you just replace it with a new one.

    • The reality is that we've seen massive numbers of jobs lost to automation over the past 200 years, and there's been no permanent rise in unemployment. Given the absurd hours that American work compared to Europeans, there's plenty of resilience just from a change in workplace culture in the US. And the fact that there are so many immigrants in the US is also an indicator that there's no shortage of jobs.

      An issue with the automation of trucking is the collateral damage that it will do to businesses such as t

      • Many of us have to work these hours or we'll be unemployed or otherwise underemployed and all of us made poorer as a result. We've been duped by our corporate masters that we need to work 50+ with no vacation while the fucking Europeans get 4 weeks a year and still live a comparable (or better?) life then we do.

        So while you are correct there is still plenty of work, if we do less of it, we'll effectively be making ourselves homeless. Given the response of California (largest state in the union, 4th largest

    • Diesel techs will be eating well for awhile yet.

    • There is no replacement job for what's being automated.

      Yes there is. You need people to manage the fleet of automated lorries, to develop and maintain the AI systems that drives them and to build the larger number of vehicles that it will now be possible to deploy. Yes that's still fewer people than currently drive lorries but that was also the case with the transition from horses to cars: horses needed massively more people to house, care, feed an clean up after them than cars, the car factory jobs were a small fraction of the jobs they replaced.

      What you a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        There is no replacement job for what's being automated.

        Yes there is.

        Not anymore. This time mental work (well low-level mental work) is getting automatized. That has never happened before.

        • This time mental work (well low-level mental work) is getting automatized. That has never happened before.

          Really? Look up where we got the name "computer" comes from. There used to be teams of people called computers hired to do calculations for companies until all of that was automated by electronic computers.

          • Given that your average person can barely manage basic Algebra, I would save that team of calculators was not low-level.

      • And there are already fewer of those because of computers and scheduling software. You're not going to get any more of them just because you don't have people driving the cars.

        This is the exact same nonsense I heard when llms started becoming a threat to jobs. We were told we were all going to be prompt engineers. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard and of course those jobs don't exist. It was just something people told us to try and calm us down so we didn't demand any social changes.

        Also it d

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. Unless a significant part of the productivity increases go back to the people, the whole thing will collapse. The super rich are a symptom of a massive, massive problem. In particular the US needs to stop worshiping the great God Mammon.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dvice ( 6309704 )

        The super rich buy more than poor people, but not really that much in comparison of how much wealth they have. Most of their money is in stocks. And when they earn more money, they buy more stocks.

        I don't think that it really matters that much do we have 1% owning all the stocks, or 50% owning all the stocks. You won't solve any problem by giving those stocks to 50% and thus getting rid of the super rich. You would still have the rich and the poor.

        So your alternatives are:
        1. Everyone owns stocks and gets mo

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          There are way more alternatives. Limiting your thinking is not conductive to finding solutions. For example, what about a property task that reaches 100% for the parts of property that go above, say 50M. Voila, people can still get rich, but "super rich" is a thing of the past. This obviously only serves as an example.

    • Do you have any idea what the turnover rate is for long-haul tractor trailer drivers? The majority of new drivers move onto another career in less than a year.
      Do you know what the average life expectancy is for a truck driver? 61 years [ccjdigital.com]. That's 16 years less than the US average.
      Do you know what the turnover rate is? 91% of truck drivers work less than a year for a given company. [freightwaves.com]
      Do you know how many NEW drivers will be needed in the upcoming years? 1 MILLION new drivers need to be trained [sdcexec.com], to replace those re

    • Most products or components end up on a truck at some point. So while it is unfair to say nobody is losing their job, it is equally unfair to say this will put millions out of work. In the short term, which is still likely 10 years or more, these trucks will run point to point, along human driven trucks, hauling trailers still needing to be delivered within cities and towns all over the country. That work will be done by people, who will get to go home at night. And while some may lose their jobs, these t

  • Could Hardly Be Worse (Score:3)

    by rally2xs ( 1093023 ) on Saturday May 03, 2025 @12:50AM (#65348951)

    After having been run off the road 3 times on one summer on I-79 IN ohio, w. Virginia, and Indiana, its hard to imagine the robots doing a worse job. We need robots with cameras all around and lacking the apparent limitations of human drivers that don't look before changing lanes, Watching videos of trucks on Facebook, we can hope for a lack of combative attitude exhibited by drivers in said videos. It's not a war, its cooperative sharing of highways, except for a lot of truckers on Facebook that think they're driving a tank.

    • Trucking and freight in general is a race to the bottom. Margins are thin and companies pay the bare minimum. If you show up and have a pulse they’ll help you get a CDL.

    • I frequently drive through the NYC metro area, and Long Island, and I can't freakin' wait until vehicle control is automated; especially there. On the rural backroads, it's kinda fun to just pay attention to the road and follow the curves. In metro areas, it's just awful: all it takes is one person to screw up, and the entire area is shut down. And god forbid that anyone actually exhibit some consideration when merging.

  • Oh, HELL NO! (Score:3)

    by NoMoreACs ( 6161580 ) on Saturday May 03, 2025 @12:57AM (#65348955)

    We can't keep Teslas from fucking up Autonomous Driving, and yet we're expected to share the road at 70 miles per hour with a 60,000 poundDriverless Semi?!?!?

    Hell to the No!

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Just stay out of Texas and you will be fine, not like there aren't enough reasons to avoid it already.

      Texas: The One-Star State.

    • We can't keep Teslas from fucking up Autonomous Driving, and yet we're expected to share the road at 70 miles per hour with a 60,000 poundDriverless Semi?!?!?

      Hell to the No!

      Apples and oranges. Tesla's camera-only, no-local-knowledge system is vastly inferior to the other self-driving systems out there. Compare instead with Waymo, which has an outstanding safety record.

      • We can't keep Teslas from fucking up Autonomous Driving, and yet we're expected to share the road at 70 miles per hour with a 60,000 poundDriverless Semi?!?!?

        Hell to the No!

        Apples and oranges. Tesla's camera-only, no-local-knowledge system is vastly inferior to the other self-driving systems out there. Compare instead with Waymo, which has an outstanding safety record.

        You're right: The destructive force of a 4,000 pound Tesla @ 70 mph and a 60,000 Semi @ 70 mph IS "Apples and Oranges", or more like "Pebbles and Asteroids"!

    • Comparing an industry to the worst and most toxic performer in it is truly stupid. If all you know about autonomous driving is what you hear from Tesla I suggest you unlearn everything and start anew.

      Unlike Tesla who insists on doing things as cheaply as possible, with as little testing as possible, with hardware that the entire rest of the industry deems insufficient, and with the goal of maybe matching a human at some point (while the rest of the industry's goal is to drastically surpass humans), the self

      • Comparing an industry to the worst and most toxic performer in it is truly stupid. If all you know about autonomous driving is what you hear from Tesla I suggest you unlearn everything and start anew.

        Unlike Tesla who insists on doing things as cheaply as possible, with as little testing as possible, with hardware that the entire rest of the industry deems insufficient, and with the goal of maybe matching a human at some point (while the rest of the industry's goal is to drastically surpass humans), the self driving industry outside of Tesla has a phenomenal track record.

        Unlike humans, humans have a shit track record, and all advances in road safety have been the result of more technology thrown at the problem, not the fools errand of making a better human.

        What's significant about 60,000 pounds? Think about it? That's what you're scared of, weight. What's weight mean for others on the road? Stopping distance. What a humans good at? Being impatient fucks. What a computers good at? Following programming. There's a reason I can't set my driver assistance system to follow within 1m of the car in front of me, and likewise 60,000 pounds is completely insignificant when a system is designed with its weight and stopping distance in mind.

        Found the Tesla Dealer!

    • The difference between Tesla and autonomous trucks is Tesla relies primarily on cameras only and these trucks rely on a panoply of sensors, including radars, cameras, and lidars. These are also dedicated to various ranges and views. So one has a decidedly 2D view of the world to make decisions on, and one had a pretty damn good 3D view. I suggest going to YouTube and watching Mark Roberâ(TM)s video https://youtu.be/IQJL3htsDyQ?s... [youtu.be]
  • So like 6 trips?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jeremi ( 14640 )

      So like 6 trips?

      Yes, like 6 trips on its own; after 10,000 trips with a person riding in the cab to supervise.

      • Who cares about the trip count? Any graduate school freshman can program a robot to make identical trips when they have perfect knowledge of location and environment. Hell, high school kids do that with Lego robotic vehicles. The important number is how many edge cases came up. How many times was someone walking along the road? How many obstacles in the road? How many emergency vehicles? Any floods? Construction? Mis-painted road lines? Salt lines that look like road lines? If the car in front of

  • Do the trucks speak English?
    • If they speak Spanish they will be deported.
    • If they spoke english they'd be lorries, not trucks.

      • Yes, but in England a semi is half of a pair of houses with a party wall.
        I've seen lots of semis on the roads in the UK, this sort being half of a temporary building on the back of a lorry, commonly called a PortaKabin but that's a trademark. When I say "lorry" I mean haulage vehicle, not a parrot, of course. 'Tain't what you say, it's how you say it. That's 'taint as in "it is not", not taint as in spoil.

        English, possibly the most ambiguous language in the world, and hence ideal for legislation.

    • You beat me to it.

  • Dallas to Houston is only 3 hours. Even airlines consider long haul to mean at least 6 hours.
    But Texas is small. If it were in Australia, it would be our third smallest state.

    • If Texas were Australia, a lot more people would want to live there, mate.

      • What a funny statement considering Texas is the 2nd most populated state in the USA. Apparently quite a few people want to live there. It's such a large and diverse state, I'm sure pretty much anyone could find some part of the state they would enjoy.

        This says nothing about politics and that you could replace the word Texas with California and the same would be true.

  • Texas and Arizona are the only places stupid enough to allow it.

  • Autonomous Truck Robbed by Highwaymen.

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