Self-driving truck technology company TuSimple Holdings Inc said Wednesday it is mapping new freight lanes from Arizona to Florida with UPS and has hit significant fuel savings for the package delivery company at highway speeds.
TuSimple said that since 2019 it has driven 160,000 miles for UPS’s North America Air Freight (NAAF) division — part of its supply chain business — and between 55 miles (88.5 km) and 68 miles. 13% fuel savings at speed is achieved. per hour. Routes for that UPS unit typically run between an airport and a UPS facility.
TuSimple said it shares data from its operations with UPS, which also holds a stake in the self-driving truck technology company.
According to the American Transportation Research Institute, fuel makes up 24% of the cost per mile for heavy-duty trucks, the largest item after driver pay and benefits, accounting for 42% of the cost.
“Cutting fuel costs by more than ten percent would result in billions of dollars in savings for the entire US trucking industry,” TuSimple chief executive Cheng Lu told Reuters.
“We cannot lose sight of the environmental and efficiency benefits that this technology is already showing,” he said. “It shows that our technology drives more efficiently than human drivers.”
TuSimple’s network began in Arizona and the company is expanding into the US Southeast.
It plans to launch a national US autonomous freight network by 2024.
Self-driving technology for freight trucks has attracted investor attention because it should be easier and cheaper to roll out than self-driving cars and robotaxis, while providing a clear path to profitability.
Self-driving freight services operating on fixed routes between predefined points – mostly on major highways without intersections or pedestrians – require less mapping than to shuttle customers between random points in Robotaxis.
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