On a lonely stretch of Texas interstate between Dallas and Houston, the possible future of freight transportation is already rumbling down the road. But whether autonomous trucking becomes commonplace might depend on federal regulations that govern stationary trucks, rather than those that are on the move.
Aurora Innovation Inc. became the first company to put heavy-duty commercial self-driving trucks on public roads when it launched its Dallas-to-Houston route in May. The company hopes to expand its routes to El Paso, Texas, and Phoenix by the end of the year. Aurora claims that its self-driving system can see objects that are as far as three football fields up the road, even if there are other cars in the way and even in the pitch black of a rural Texas night.
