There’s a shortage a truck drivers and this has exasperated Britain’s fuel crisis as well as slowed deliveries to retail stores. While the problem is nothing new, the solution could come in the form of autonomous semis. They’re taking a big leap forward today as Aurora and Volvo have a unveiled an autonomous long-haul semi prototype based on the VNL. Billed as an “important step towards launching fully autonomous Class 8 trucks commercially in North America,” the prototype has been equipped with an Aurora sensor suite which appears to include at least four different lidar sensors.
The companies were coy on specifics, but Aurora has previously said their system also uses high-resolution cameras and radar sensors. This promises to provide overlapping coverage of the truck’s surroundings, which should allow for added safety.
Speaking of the latter, the companies noted safety is paramount and suggested there will be redundancies for core systems such as braking and steering. Aurora also said the direct collaboration means they’re “not retrofitting each truck with hundreds of these driverless platform requirements, critical redundancies, and controls on our own” which is a “vastly inefficient and unreliable process.” Instead, the company is working with Volvo to design the VNL architecture to support their autonomous driving system from the get-go.
Of course, this won’t happen overnight and Aurora will spend the next several months integrating their hardware kit as well as testing and validating prototypes. The companies said we can expect to learn more in the future, but noted they’re already working to identify specific regions and routes to serve as the initial hubs for on-road highway testing. This work is being done in preparation for future production at Volvo Trucks’ New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia. There’s no word on when that will occur, but Aurora has previously suggested autonomous trucks could arrive as early as 2023.
