Volvo Autonomous Solutions
Volvo Autonomous Solutions has expanded its footprint in North America with the opening of an office in Fort Worth designed to set up its first autonomous hub-to-hub transport that will run from Fort Worth-Dallas to El Paso and from Dallas to Houston.
“At Volvo Autonomous Solutions we believe the path to autonomy at scale is through reducing the friction and complications around ownership and operations for customers,” said Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, in a statement. “This is why we have taken the decision to be the single interface to our customers and take full ownership of the elements required for commercial autonomous transport.
“With the opening of our office in Texas and start of operational activities, we are building the foundations for a transport solution that will change the way we move goods on highways.”
Volvo Autonomous Solutions, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, is a part of the Volvo Group. The company is tackling the transportation industry's capacity constraints through safe, sustainable and efficient autonomous transport solutions. The Autonomous Transport Solutions (ATS) offered by Volvo Autonomous Solutions includes hardware, software and services required to run autonomous transport operations.
On highways, the solution is operated based on a hub-to-hub model where autonomous trucks take on the highway portion of the driving, operating all hours of the day and night between transfer hubs while human drivers complete local operations.
To accelerate the development and adoption of autonomous transport solutions, Volvo Autonomous Solutions is partnering with others in the industry, including DHL and Uber Freight who are part of the Volvo Autonomous Solutions key customer program. The program is aimed at shippers, carriers, logistics service providers and freight brokers whom Volvo Autonomous Solutions will work with to pilot and commercialize autonomous transport solutions.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions has also formed a partnership with industry-pioneer Aurora. At the heart of the partnership is the integration of the Aurora Driver with Volvo's on-highway truck offering.
Aurora hauls 50 customer loads per week with its shipping partners across two routes in Texas as part of a pilot program of its autonomous trucking service. These routes will be among the first to go fully autonomous when Aurora pulls its drivers from its cabs upon the launch of Aurora Horizon.
"Through our Autonomous Transport Solution, our ambition is to create a new source of industry capacity that will ease some of the burden of the increasing demand for freight while also enabling local drivers to shift into short-haul jobs that will keep them closer to home,” said Sasko Cukley, Volvo Autonomous Solutions head of on-road solutions. “This will unlock significant efficiencies in the entire supply chain and benefit everyone in the transportation industry.”