To help you understand the driving force behind autonomous trucks and cars, and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe). You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…
Autonomous trucks are slowly hitting the road, mostly on interstates in Texas and the Southwest, with a human driver on board, standing by, or traveling in platoons behind a lead truck driven by a person. Maersk is running Kodiak Robotics trucks between warehouses in Houston and Oklahoma City with a safety driver. Daimler plans to offer the service commercially by 2027. Many other companies are in the space as well, so there is likely to be a first-mover advantage that will cause consolidation among companies by the end of the decade.
Other current players in the sector that are likely to be ready to go, in the near future, are Aurora Innovation and Gatik, the latter focusing on short-haul. TuSimple had been expected to be an immediate player, but they may be shifting focus to China. New entrants include Waabi, Stack AV, and Applied Intuition, which bought out the bankrupt Embark. Waymo Via will focus on taxis and ride-hailing for now.
