Volvo Autonomous Solutions and driverless technology developer Aurora have achieved the next milestone in their partnership to jointly develop on-highway autonomous trucks in the U.S.
A prototype of Volvo Trucks’ flagship long-haul VNL model, integrated with the Aurora Driver technology, was unveiled Tuesday, representing a critical step toward launching fully autonomous Class 8 trucks commercially in North America. Volvo Autonomous Solutions is a division of Greensboro-based Volvo Trucks North America.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions is paving the way toward offering Volvo autonomous trucks to customers, as well as delivering comprehensive and seamless Transport as a Service (TaaS) solutions for autonomous commercial trucks, tailored to customer needs.
“Volvo Autonomous Solutions is proud to take our first major steps toward the autonomous Volvo VNL in North America,” said Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “Our long-standing customer base and their priorities are at the forefront of our path forward in shaping autonomous trucking.
"We strongly believe in a future in which safe, sustainable, efficient transport solutions are essential for any society to prosper, and autonomous commercial trucking is an important piece of that transformation.”
While research and development are supported by global team efforts, on-highway autonomous truck applications are also being designed and engineered in the U.S. in preparation for future production at Volvo Trucks North America’s New River Valley Assembly Operations in Dublin, Virginia.
The transformation to autonomous builds on proven safety technologies already in place on the Volvo VNL, including Volvo Dynamic Steering and automated transmission. These existing technologies, along with other advanced vehicle features, create a redundant safety-based solution in the autonomous truck’s core systems.
“We are proud that our Volvo VNL model will serve as the foundation for the development of North American autonomous trucks to offer our customers the next generation of safe, efficient and sustainable transport solutions,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America.
Bringing autonomous Volvo on-highway trucks to market will complement current transport system to help meet the increasing demand for moving goods while minimizing environmental impact.
“We believe that autonomous solutions will complement the transport system of today and will be implemented where there is a purpose and where it makes sense,” said Sasko Cuklev, head of on-road solutions for Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “It is important for us to be part of this transformation, and together with our customers and partners, to be a leader in building up the new ecosystem.”
As Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Aurora continue to make progress with the Volvo VNL prototype, the partners are working toward the next step in implementing their hub-to-hub transport vision in North America.
This includes identifying regions and routes to serve as the initial hubs for on-road highway testing. In addition, Volvo Autonomous Solutions is working with customers to understand their current and future needs, priorities and demands in preparation for piloting the autonomous Volvo VNL in on-road, hub-to-hub transport scenarios, as well as the eventual adoption of autonomous technology commercially.
