If you drive a car on long distances, you are intrigued about driverless cars. Would it be nice if you could put the car on autopilot on the highway and then wait till you get to your destination and then have to drive? It may be possible in the future but for freight companies they have started doing it.

In an article by Jim Motavalli of the New York Times News Service, a company called Aurora Innovation, runs autonomous commercial trucking operations on I-45 between Dallas and Houston. The customers include FedEx and Uber Freight.

It has been more than 3 weeks, although Paccar, maker of the Peterbilt trucks asked Aurora to put a person in the cab.

A driver’s salary is 26% of the per-mile cost of operating a truck. Going driverless would result in considerable savings for the US freight-truck business which generates more than $900 billion in annual revenue.

One of the reasons for going autonomous is a driver shortage, if you see trucks on the highway many of them have a sign on them saying we are hiring. Bob Costello, chief economist at the American Trucking Association, says currently there is not a big US shortage, although globally it could be 3.6 million people.

A consensus is emerging that fully autonomous Class 8 trucking on major highways will arrive in 2027. Trucks are classified 1 to 8, with 8 being the largest. The testing ground is Texas.

Aurora recently began a 1,000 mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix for Hirschbach, a refrigerated goods carrier. The 1,000 miles run exceeds what human drivers are able to do without stopping because of work-hour limitations. Some of Hirschbach customers include: Driscoll’s (the berry company) and Detmar Logistics work at a mining site.

Kodiak AI is making runs for customers including J.B. Hunt and Werner Enterprises. The trucks go from Houston to Oklahoma City and Atlanta and have safety drivers for now.

Don Burnette, chief executive and founder of Kodiak whose partners include Bosch and Roush Performance said he expects the trucks will run without no drivers in the second half of the year.

PlusAI produces autonomous software that is going into factory built International Trucks that are set to go on the road in 2027.

Why Texas, a combination of the routes, the weather and favorable regulatory environment.

Volvo, based in Sweden has driverless trucks for European mining operations, but they are far from the interstates. Volvo’s partners include: Aurora and Waabi. Volvo is expecting to have trucks in the US ready for 2027.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, ever since the US had highways, trucks have carried goods across the country. Once the interstates were built, truck movement multiplied to what it is today. In every industry, there are costs associated with it, for a time in trucking, the cost for people was they were in the Teamsters Union. Times evolved and the union represented fewer people. When fuel prices went up, the design of the trucks changed, and fuel efficiency increased. There are always costs and technology helps bring some costs down to maintain or increase margins. There is always a fight to cut costs, this is part of management’s job, how the companies you invest in cutting costs helps you to decide to hold or seek alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.