Company launches first ‘commercial-ready’ terminal for self-driving semi trucks in Texas
On Thursday, Aurora announced that the company has built and started utilizing a freight terminal in Texas specifically designed to support the company’s self-driving truck network.
The terminal is located in South Dallas, Texas, and is designed to enable the commercial launch of driverless truck operations between Dallas and Houston announced earlier this month.
Aurora says that the South Dallas driverless truck terminal will serve as a blueprint for the company’s future network of terminals to “house, maintain, prepare, inspect, and deploy autonomous trucks between destinations.”
“In the past six months, the trailer traffic at the terminal has tripled, which mirrors Aurora’s growth in pilot hauls. Aurora is currently hauling 50 customer loads a week across its two commercial routes and expects to increase its pilot hauls to 100 loads per week by the end of 2023,” the company noted in a news release.
Aurora says that features at the terminal include:
- Specific capabilities for driverless operations such as sensor calibration ranges, high-speed data offload, and launching and landing zones.
- Traditional services including fueling and weigh stations to enable autonomous trucks to continuously drive without additional stops.
- On-site maintenance to optimize fleet uptime and support safe operation of trucks on the road.
“Self-driving technology will fundamentally transform how we move goods,” said Kendra Phillips, Vice President of Service Delivery at Aurora. “It’s incredibly exciting to lead the way for how to deliver commercial driverless operations to our customers and the broader industry.”