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The Volvo VNL truck consists of options for security, integration, and business scale. | Supply: Volvo Autonomous Options

Volvo Autonomous Options this week unveiled its first-ever production-ready autonomous truck. The corporate debuted the car on the ACT Expo in Las Vegas. The VNS Autonomous truck brings collectively Volvo’s business car experience with autonomous driving expertise from Aurora Innovation Inc., it mentioned.

“We’re on the forefront of a brand new strategy to transport items, complementing and enhancing transportation capability, and thereby enabling commerce and societal development,” said Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Options (VAS). “This truck is the primary of our standardized international autonomous expertise platform, which is able to allow us to introduce further fashions sooner or later, bringing autonomy to all Volvo Group truck manufacturers, and to different geographies and use instances.”

Volvo added that the truck is the results of years of analysis and growth into autonomous car expertise. The Gothenburg, Sweden-based automaker mentioned the platform-based design strategy will allow it to do two issues.

The primary is to make use of its digital driver developed in home for vehicles and machines working inside confined purposes. The second is to accomplice with digital driving applied sciences for on-highway trucking purposes. 

Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson, and Drew Bagnell based Aurora in 2017. Its Aurora Driver is a self-driving system with a typical core of {hardware} and software program. The Pittsburgh-based firm designed it to adapt to a broad set of auto varieties, from a four-door sedan to a Class 8 semi truck. 

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Volvo prioritizes security and integration

Based in 2020, Volvo Autonomous Options mentioned it’s addressing the transportation {industry}’s capability constraints with protected, sustainable, and environment friendly autonomous expertise. The unit of the Volvo Group gives prospects tailor-made transport as a service (TaaS) with autonomous autos, required infrastructure, operational and uptime assist, and cloud-based administration of logistics flows.

With the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck, VAS mentioned it made each design and engineering choice with security in thoughts. This is the reason the system has redundant steering, braking, communication, computation, energy administration, vitality storage, and car movement administration methods. 

Along with security, Volvo prioritized integrating Aurora’s Driver, an SAE Degree 4 system, into the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. Aurora mentioned its driver is made up of AI software program, twin computer systems, proprietary lidar that may detect greater than 400 m (1,312.3 ft.) away, high-resolution cameras, an imaging reader, and extra sensors. These applied sciences allow the Volvo VNL Autonomous to soundly navigate the world round it. 

“Powered by the Aurora Driver, the brand new Volvo VNL Autonomous is the belief of our shared imaginative and prescient,” mentioned Sterling Anderson, co-founder and chief product officer at Aurora, mentioned. “This truck combines Aurora’s industry-leading self-driving expertise with Volvo’s best-in-class truck, designed particularly for autonomy, making it a must have for any transport supplier that desires to strengthen and develop their enterprise.”

The Aurora Driver has been skilled and examined in Aurora’s digital suite, the place it has pushed billions of miles, claimed the corporate. It additionally has 1.5 million business miles on public roads, the place it navigates end-to-end trucking routes. It has pushed on highways, rural roadways, and floor streets day and night time and in good and unhealthy climate, Aurora mentioned. 

Seeking to the highway forward

The Volvo VNL Autonomous truck will likely be assembled at Volvo’s flagship New River Valley (NRV) plant in Dublin, Va. The NRV plant is the most important Volvo Vehicles plant on the earth. Volvo mentioned its high-volume manufacturing expertise, mixed with stringent autonomous high quality processes, will give allow it to supply autonomous vehicles to satisfy {industry} demand. 

In 2023, the U.S. was quick 80,000 truck drivers, in keeping with the American Journal of Transportation. This downside will solely improve, because the examine confirmed that by 2030, the U.S. will likely be quick 160,000 drivers. Volvo mentioned its autonomous vehicles can deal with this problem. 

“The Volvo VNL Autonomous, powered by the Aurora Driver, gives a totally built-in autonomous resolution within the hub-to-hub section,” mentioned Sasko Cuklev, head of on-road options at Volvo Autonomous Options. “Our strategy reduces complexity for our prospects whereas permitting them to expertise the advantages of an autonomous resolution with peace of thoughts by making certain effectivity, security, and reliability.”