Yet another company is testing driverless trucks on the highways of Texas with plans to eventually haul freight.
Bot Auto, an autonomous trucking company based in Houston, announced the successful completion of its first humanless hub-to-hub validation run in Houston. The truck operated seamlessly within its defined operational domain with no one in the cab or remote assistance, navigating real-world traffic conditions, according to a statement from the company. The run was executed at sunset, successfully navigating day and night operations, Bot Auto said.
Bot said this run serves as a validation benchmark, demonstrating the maturity and safety of its autonomy stack and test protocols. It was achieved within two years of the company's founding.
Prior to the run, Bot Auto said it completed end-to-end safety verification and validation for the defined Operational Design Domain (ODD), including rigorous closed-course autonomy testing. To further safeguard operations, the truck was equipped with multiple layers of protection, including diversified redundancy, continuous health monitoring, and verified minimum-risk fallback, which the company said was designed to maintain intended performance under normal conditions and to respond safely to unexpected events.
"This validation run is a meaningful step, but it's a waypoint, not the destination," said Dr. Xiaodi Hou, founder and CEO of Bot Auto. "Success is simple: autonomy must beat human cost-per-mile, consistently and safely. And at Bot Auto, humanless means no human — not in the driver's seat, not in the back seat, and not behind a remote joystick."
For several months, Bot Auto has been operating fully autonomous commercial operations between Houston and San Antonio with safety drivers onboard. In the coming months, Bot Auto said its continuous validation will include its first humanless commercial cargo run between its Houston and San Antonio hubs.
