Street Smarts: Autonomous trucks are a whole new transport mode

Volvo Trucks has been relatively quiet on the autonomous technology front for the past several years. This low-key approach has been in spite of an incredible amount of work being done by the company’s engineers all over the globe to develop and deploy safe and reliable autonomous trucks.

The new Volvo VNL was designed from the ground up as an autonomous-capable vehicle platform. (Photo: Jack Roberts)

Lately, Volvo has been hinting that its autonomous truck technology will be coming to market sooner rather than later. In early December 2024, the Swedish OEM announced that Volvo Autonomous Solutions (V.A.S.), its dedicated autonomous truck division, and DHL Supply Chain have begun driverless, long-haul freight runs between several major Texas cities. The new Volvo VNL models are fitted with Aurora Driver autonomous technology.

According to Sasko Cuklev, head of on-road solutions for V.A.S., these operations are a critical step in Volvo’s quest to develop a full ecosystem to support autonomous freight transport at scale.

Longer Routes Ahead

At a briefing at Volvo Trucks North America headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., last fall, Cuklev set the stage ahead of the Texas validation runs. He noted that while the Volvo Group has had success with autonomous trucks operating in Norwegian quarries, long-haul applications, particularly in North America, remain the “holy grail” for autonomous tech developers.

“Autonomous technology is not as simple as many people were led to believe it would be,” Cuklev said, “which is why today, at Volvo, we feel autonomous technology needs to be looked at as an all-new way of transporting goods. Our society should view autonomous as a new mode of transportation – just like you have air, rail, shipping and trucking.”

The Volvo-DHL autonomous runs in Texas reflect that thinking, he continued. Longer routes are coming, and each new route will be a building block in what Volvo sees as an eventual network of national service points designed to fully support autonomous trucks working in daily fleet operations.

“We are super confident in what we’re doing,” Cuklev said. “We have a very good plan on how to commercialize this technology. We have well-defined steps going forward – always with an emphasis on safety.”

Designed for Tech

A critical piece of the formula, said Cuklev, is the VNL Class 8 highway tractor, which debuted early last year. It was designed from the ground up to be a technology-enabled platform that can accept both new and future technologies.

In practical terms, that means being designed and built with Aurora Driver fully integrated into its design – and with the technology fully integrated into the production process at the New River Valley, Va. plant.

“These are not retrofitted trucks,” Cuklev said. “This technology is fully integrated into the design and production of the vehicle on the assembly line. And it receives full technical support from Volvo dealers nationwide in the field.”

Jack Roberts is a Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based independent journalist and licensed commercial driver with more than 20 years’ experience covering the North American and global trucking industries.

Volvo has already built its first batch of VNL tractors with Aurora Driver. But the goal is not to produce fully integrated autonomous trucks in double-digit numbers, Cuklev stated – the ultimate goal is high-volume production.

As the Texas operations with DHL validate the technology, Cuklev said Volvo expects to begin scaling up production in the near future. V.A.S.’s immediate plans are focused on developing a fully mature autonomous system.

“We really want to scale this technology fast and we are preparing for that now,” he added. “Because when we release our autonomous solution, we want to be able to bring it into scale production as quickly as possible.”