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Self-Driving Truck Company, TuSimple to Haul Mail for USPS
Self-driving truck company TuSimple has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Postal Service to preform five round trips between their Phoenix, AZ and Dallas, TX distribution centers. This contract is supposed to take place over a two-week pilot program. The first run began on May 21, 2019 and is a journey of 1,000+ miles both ways. During the runs, TuSimple’s trucks will have a backup driver and a safety engineer on board to monitor the vehicles as they drive on the highway.
TuSimple’s founder, president and chief of technology officer, Xiaodi Hou, announced, “Preforming for the USPS … gives us specific-use cases to help us validate our system, and expedite the technological development and commercialization progress.” They intend to complete each trip within a 22-hour timeframe. To do this, TuSimple plans to have the trucks operate as continuously as possible, this will include overnight driving and switching drivers out at stopping points to continue to comply with the hours-of-service limits.
The self-driving trucks rely primarily on cameras. TuSimple has also equipped them with radar and lidar sensors to track the vehicle’s environment. The long-term goal of TuSimple is for a driver to no longer be necessary on board and have the vehicle be completely autonomous. During the two-week pilot for USPS, TuSimple will use three of their own tractors to haul mail and packages. This pilot will even mark the debut of self-driving trucks in Texas. TuSimple believes that these freight runs from Arizona to Texas will become a core route for the company.
Contributor: Mary Winter
References:
Clevenger, S. (2019, May 22). TuSimple Self-Driving Trucks to Haul Mail for Postal Service in Two-Week Pilot. Retrieved from https://www.ttnews.com/articles/tusimple-self-driving-trucks-haul-mail-postal-service-two-week-pilot
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