Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation, Inc., announced Thursday that it had launched its first commercial-ready terminal for autonomous trucks.
The new terminal, located in South Dallas, is designed to serve as a new standard for commercial operations in the autonomous truck industry, the company said, with innovative features specifically for driverless operations. The terminal will also serve as a blueprint for the company’s future terminal network, officials said.
“Self-driving technology will fundamentally transform how we move goods,” said Kendra Phillips, vice president of Service Delivery at Aurora. “It’s incredibly exciting to lead the way for how to deliver commercial driverless operations to our customers and the broader industry.”
The terminals provide unique features and services to autonomous trucks, including capabilities for driverless operations like sensor calibration ranges, high-speed data offload, and launching and landing zones; fueling and weigh stations that enable autonomous trucks to drive continuously without additional stops and on-site maintenance to optimize fleet uptime and support safe truck operations.
The Palmer, Texas terminal deploys autonomous trucks daily for Aurora’s pilot customers, including FedEx, Schneider, and Uber Freight, as they drive between Dallas and Houston. The company said it is preparing for the commercial launch of its Aurora Horizon, an autonomous trucking service that will leverage a network of terminals to house, maintain, prepare, inspect, and deploy autonomous trucks.
“This blueprint for next-generation autonomous terminals will be instrumental as we deploy autonomous trucks at scale across the U.S.,” Phillips said.
The company said trailer traffic at the terminal had increased three-fold in the past six months. Aurora currently hauls 50 customer loads per week across its two commercial routes and anticipates increasing to 100 loads per week by the end of this year.