Many things are inevitable in the domain of self-driving technology, mainly autonomous trucks, a $700 billion industry, for long-haul routes.
More technology companies are developing technology, regulators are working on new laws, and the top companies are emerging to fill the gap rapidly.
The autonomous technology will help to increase productivity, reduce cost, speed up the delivery process, and efficient fuel consumption or electric trucks without fossil fuels — great news for a sustainable future.
Here are the top 5 self-driving truck companies in the world:
1- Waymo
Waymo is an autonomous technology development company that is a part of Alphabet Inc. Waymo has been developing the technology since 2010 and has particularly shown interest in self-driving trucks from the past couple of years.
Waymo’s self-driving trucks are equipped with new radar technology to navigate the roads. They recently launched a driverless truck service in California to deliver foreign at several Google data centers.
They also placed a human driver on board from the safety perspective in case of emergency at the initial stage of the project.
2- Tesla
Tesla is a huge name in the automotive industry. They proved that a sustainable future without gas is possible. Tesla first released its truck back in 2017. Tesla will be focusing on its state-of-the-art autopilot driverless software similar to their modern cars.
The autonomous system will be controlling the steering, speed, and braking while humans are still on board in case of an emergency. Tesla is also developing a tactical system where an autonomous truck will follow the human-driven truck.
After government approval, Tesla is already testing its prototyping semi-trucks in Nevada and California. Tesla is also increasing the price of a fully self-driving system (FSD) by 20%, a recent tweet confirmed by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla.
FSD will also be a part of the upcoming cyber track, but we don’t know when the public will see the first truck.
3- Embark
Embark is a self-driving truck technology company founded by Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak in 2016. Embark trucks are also the longest self-driving truck project in America, trying to solve the $700 billion trucking issues:
- a shortage of truck drivers
- trucks’ safety in challenging environments
- drivers fatigue
- Supply chain issue
Instead of competing with the carrier, their approach is straightforward, collaborating to scale the technology. Embark has many successful self-driving trucking trips across the country, operating in the fog and rain. You can check this article to know more: 21 Top Self-Driving Car Companies Racing to Autonomous Future
Embark is also the longest-running self-driving truck program in America. Starting in 2016, when the autonomous vehicles industry was focused on passenger vehicles, our team ignored the hype and trusted their vision that trucking was the best use case for self-driving technology.
4- Daimler
Daimler is one of the biggest commercial automobile manufacturers globally and a pioneer to test self-driving trucks technology since 2014. Daimler is also the parent company of Mercedez-Benz and Freightliner Trucks. They compete with Tesla by testing a similar project where an autonomous vehicle will follow the human-driven truck.
Daimler also opened a research and development facility in Portland, Oregon, in 2018, testing all the new autonomous technology.
5- TuSimple
TuSimple is sbaed in Diego, California nad Bejing, China. Recently, they claimed that their self-driving technology saved 10+ hours off from a 24-hour run.
TuSimple, a self-driving technology, tested its trucks by hauling watermelons along a 951-mile route from Nogales, Arizona, to Oklahoma City. The drive typically takes over 24 hours to complete, but the self-driving technology truck took only 14 hours and 6 minutes.
However, they used a human driver on board to comply with the local rules and regulations. The autonomous truck shaved off 41.67% of the time and quickly delivered the fresh watermelons.
TuSimple is anticipating operating the autonomous trucks without a driver on board at the end of 2024. The autonomous truck can be driven manually if needed. If necessary, the autonomous trucks can be driven manually.
Conclusion
The top technology companies develop the autonomous system to speed up the safety process. The first-generation self-driving trucks will be built with a steering wheel to be used manually if needed.
In the beginning, the autonomous trucks were still required to be operated by a human driver to separate, shift the trailer and tractor.
The demand for trucks and truck drivers increases with fast e-commerce deliveries, but the supply component is not looking great.
According to American Trucking Association, there is a shortage of over 90000 truck drivers across the USA which can be accelerated to over 160000 by 2026. The autonomous trucks will help to resolve the truck drivers shortage challenge.
If you play this out without new technology, it’s not getting better, and you and I don’t want to be truck drivers, our kids don’t want to be truck drivers. So we really need to achieve Level 4.
Cheng Lu, CEO TuSimple
Thank you for reading, and let me know your perspectives on autonomous trucks?
