Plus.ai completes cross-country freight run by self-driving truck

Dec. 19, 2019

Industry’s first autonomous coast-to-coast haul brings 40,000 pounds of Land O'Lakes butter to families for year-end holidays

Commercial Vehicle Staff

Plus.ai, a provider of self-driving trucking technology, recently completed what it says is the first coast-to-coast commercial freight run with an autonomous truck on behalf of Land O’Lakes.

Spanning 2,800 miles, Plus.ai’s L4 autonomous truck completed the hub-to-hub trip from Tulare CA to Quakertown PA in less than three days. This is the first L4 US cross-country commercial pilot hauling a fully loaded refrigerated trailer of perishable cargo, the company maintained.

Plus ai Delivers Land O'lakes Butter On First Cross Country Commercial Freight Run By Autonomous Truck

The truck was equipped with Plus.ai’s advanced autonomous driving system, which utilizes multimodal sensor fusion, deep learning visual algorithms, and simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) technologies. The journey was a key milestone in validating the system’s ability to safely handle a wide range of weather and road conditions, Plus.ai said. The vehicle drove primarily in autonomous mode through the 2,800 miles across Interstate 15 and Interstate 70, passing through varied terrains and weather conditions. A safety driver was onboard at all times to monitor and assume control if needed, and a safety engineer was present to monitor system operations.

“This cross-country freight run with Land O’Lakes shows the safety, efficiency and maturity of our autonomous trucks, which are already delivering freight for other partners several days a week,” said Shawn Kerrigan, chief operating oficer and co-founder of Plus.ai. “Continued advances in our autonomous trucks will make it possible for these quick cross-country runs to be the norm in the future. We are excited to demonstrate what our technology can already achieve today while meeting rigorous autonomous driving safety and food transportation compliance standards.”

On its continuous cross-country journey, the Plus.ai autonomous truck safely navigated driving day and night through the expansive plains of Kansas, winding roads of the Rockies, road construction, multi-mile tunnels, over 11,000 feet of elevation, and was greeted with rainy and snowy roads heading east, all in under three days, the company claimed.

“Self-driving and other emerging transportation technologies stand to completely reshape commercial shipping, so we are thrilled to collaborate with technology leaders like Plus.ai to pilot autonomous trucks for our shipping needs,” said Yone Dewberry, Land O’Lakes’ chief supply chain officer. “End of the year is a very busy time for us. To be able to address this peak demand with a fuel- and cost-effective freight transport solution will be tremendously valuable to our business.”