If you’re wondering what the future of electric trucks might look like, TuSimple who have completed the very first fully autonomous truck run on public roads can give you a sneak peek.
The run which took place towards the end of 2021 began its journey from a large railyard in Tucson, Arizona, and traveled more than 80 miles on surface streets and highways at night, safely arriving at a high-volume distribution center in the Phoenix metro area. Along the journey, TuSimple’s Autonomous Driving System (ADS) successfully navigated surface streets, traffic signals, on-ramps, off-ramps, emergency lane vehicles, and highway lane changes in open traffic while naturally interacting with other motorists.
Since they first hit the market EV’s have had their fair share of trials and tribulations, autonomous EV’s even more so. We hear a great deal about passenger cars but what about the larger commercial vehicles? TuSimple have clearly shown a good example of what an autonomous vehicle can do to operate safely over a set distance but in the future be interesting to see how a heavy autonomous vehicle will cope over a longer distance and will they be more susceptible to delays without a driver?
The one-hour and 20-minute drive is the first time a class 8 autonomous truck has operated on open public roads without a human in the vehicle and without human intervention and is part of an ongoing test program that will continue into 2022.
“By achieving this momentous technical milestone, we demonstrated the advanced capabilities of TuSimple’s autonomous driving system and the commercial maturity of our testing process, prioritizing safety and collaboration every step of the way. This test reinforces what we believe is our unique position at the forefront of autonomous trucking, delivering advanced driving technology at commercial scale.
This year, we were laser-focused on putting our technology through a rigorous test on open public roads under real-world conditions, and to see all our hard work and dedication come together is extremely rewarding.”
– Cheng Lu, President, and CEO, TuSimple
