Last June, Alphabet’s self-driving unit worked with JB Hunt, a trucking and logistics company, to test its Waymo Via technology in Texas. On Friday, the two announced that they Forming a strategic partnership with the hope of rolling out fully autonomous trucking in the state within the next few years. In the immediate future, Waymo and JB Hunt said they plan to host more pilots related to Waymo Via. It’s the Waymo Driver-backed unit that Alphabet subsidiary has developed for Class 8 trucks. It also plans to complete additional market studies.
Partnership expands after one in which Waymo and JB Hunt said they transported 862,179 lbs of cargo without their test trucks speeding or having any accidents. The conclusion they drew at the time was that Waymo Driver was ready to deliver on time and safely. Waymo is just one of a handful of companies working on autonomous trucking technology. A few months before the company completed a pilot program in June with JB Hunt, Aurora, the startup that acquired Uber’s , announced that it is work with Volvo to build fully automatic semi-automatic trucks that can transport goods across North America.
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