Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board.

A quarter-mile ahead, the truck's sensors spotted a trash can blocking one lane and a tire in another. In less than a second, it signaled, moved into the unobstructed lane and rumbled past the obstacles.

The self-driving semi, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks.

Within three or four years, Aurora and its competitors expect to put thousands self-driving trucks on America's public freeways. The goal is for the trucks, which can run nearly around the clock without breaks, to speed the flow of goods, accelerating delivery times.

The image of a fully loaded, 80,000-pound driverless truck on a super-highway at 65 mph or more may strike a note of terror. A January poll by AAA found that a majority of American drivers — 66% — said they would fear riding in an autonomous vehicle.

But in less than nine months, trucks with Aurora's systems will start carrying loads between terminals for FedEx, Uber Freight, Werner and others. Aurora and most rivals plan to start running freight routes in Texas, where snow and ice are generally rare.

For years, it seemed as though the initial venture for autonomous vehicles would be ride hailing in large cities. But General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit is struggling in the aftermath of a serious crash. And Alphabet's Waymo faces opposition to expanding its autonomous ride service in California. So self-driving trucks are poised to become the first computer-controlled vehicles deployed in widespread numbers on public roads.

However, safety advocates warn that with almost no federal regulation, it will be mainly up to the companies to decide when the semis are safe enough to operate without humans on board.

Aurora and other companies argue that years of testing show their trucks will be safer than human-driven ones. They note that the vehicles' laser and radar sensors can “see” farther than human eyes. The trucks never tire, get distracted or become impaired by alcohol or drugs.

“We want to be out there with thousands or tens of thousands of trucks on the road,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora's CEO. "And to do that, we have to be safe. It’s the only way that the public will accept it. Frankly, it’s the only way our customers will accept it.”

Phil Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies vehicle automation, agreed that self-driving trucks can theoretically be safer. But he cautioned that the vehicles' computers inevitably will make errors. And just how the trucks fare on real roads, he said, depends on the quality of their safety engineering.

With billions of dollars in investments at stake, Koopman said, he wonders how the companies will balance safety decisions.

“Everything I see indicates they’re trying to do the right thing," he said. "But the devil is in the details.”

On the test track, reporters saw Aurora's semis avoid simulations of road obstacles, including pedestrians, a blown tire, even a horse. The trucks spotted obstacles more than a quarter-mile away and avoided them.

But they were running at only 35 mph (56 kilometers per hour) in a controlled environment. (The trucks are being tested with human safety drivers on Texas freeways, at higher speeds.)

Since 2021, Aurora trucks have autonomously hauled freight over 1 million miles on public highways with human safety drivers on board. There have been only three crashes, Urmson said, all caused by mistakes by human drivers in other vehicles.

A federal database that started in June 2021 shows at least 13 crashes with other vehicles involving autonomous semis, including three involving Aurora. In all cases, the crashes were caused by other vehicles.

Last month, Urmson said the publicly held company expects to turn a profit by late 2027 or early 2028. To do so, Aurora must deploy thousands of trucks, hauling freight and collecting a per-mile charge from customers.

Aurora, Urmson said, won't compromise safety, even if doing so might delay turning a profit.

“If we put a vehicle on the road that isn’t sufficiently safe — that we aren’t confident in the safety of — then it kills everything else,” he said.

The company's competitors — Plus.ai, Gatik, Kodiak Robotics and others — also plan soon to put driverless trucks on the roads hauling freight for customers. Gatik expects it this year or next; the others haven't set timetables.

Don Burnette, CEO of Kodiak, said freeways are a better environment for autonomous vehicles than cities where ride-hailing robotaxis have been running. There are fewer pedestrians, and fewer unexpected things happen.

At a Buc-ee's mega convenience store along I-45 south of Dallas, the prospect of driverless semis struck a note of fear.

“It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen," said Kent Franz, a high school basketball coach in Chandler, Oklahoma. "I’ve heard of the driverless cars — Tesla, what have you — and the accidents they’ve been having. Eighteen-wheelers? Something that heavy, relying on technology that has proven it can be faulty? Doesn’t sound very comfortable to me.”

No federal regulations specifically cover autonomous vehicles, Koopman of Carnegie Mellon noted. And most states have none. As a result, he said, the public must trust the companies.

Federal agencies lack authority to stop autonomous vehicles from going on the roads. If something goes wrong, though, they can require recalls or order trucks out of service.

The companies say they can help address a truck driver shortage, estimated by the trucking industry to be 64,000 drivers. Yet there also are worries that autonomous trucks eventually will supplant human drivers and cost them their livelihoods.

Aurora's Urmson said he thinks driverless semis will complement the work already done by human drivers.

“If you're driving a truck today," he said, “my expectation is you're going to be able to retire driving a truck.”

AP Business Writer David Koenig contributed to this report from Dallas and AP Data Journalist Aaron Kessler from Washington.

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

A self-driving tractor trailer is displayed at a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

A self-driving tractor trailer is displayed at a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck, outfitted with 25 laser, radar and camera sensors, is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The interior of the cab of a self driving truck is shown as the truck maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads

A self-driving tractor trailer maneuvers around a test track in Pittsburgh, Thursday, March 14, 2024. The truck is owned by Pittsburgh-based Aurora Innovation Inc. Late this year, Aurora plans to start hauling freight on Interstate 45 between the Dallas and Houston areas with 20 driverless trucks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Republican Gov. Jim Justice won West Virginia’s GOP Senate nomination on Tuesday as voters across two states with antithetical politics decided primary contests with big implications for the Senate majority fight this fall.

In all, three states hosted statewide primary elections on Tuesday — Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia — as Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees for a slate of fall elections. None were more consequential than Senate primaries in deep-blue Maryland and deep-red West Virginia, where Republicans are eying pickup opportunities that could flip control of Congress’ upper chamber for at least two years.

At the same time, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump tried to project strength in low-stakes presidential primaries in all three states. Further down the ballot, two congressional candidates on opposite sides of the 2021 Capitol attack serve as a stark reminder that the nation remains deeply divided over the deadly insurrection.

Justice's won his primary against U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney in the race to replace Sen. Joe Manchin. With Manchin gone, the seat is almost guaranteed to turn red come November.

The Trump-endorsed Justice, a former billionaire with a folksy personality, is wildly popular in the state. He also earned Trump's endorsement. A former Democrat, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017, announcing the change at a Trump rally.

Mooney had tried to win over conservatives by labeling Justice a “RINO” — which stands for “Republican in name only” — who would support Democratic policies. Justice did support Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, saying West Virginia couldn’t afford to turn away the money offered in the bill.

At a polling place in West Virginia’s capital city, voter Steve Ervin said his votes Tuesday were directly related to Trump.

“I really did an exhaustive study of the sample ballot of who I believe supported Trump and Trump supported them,” said Ervin, who works in the state’s unemployment office. “That’s what I made my whole decision on.”

West Virginia is also deciding its candidates for governor. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race against Manchin, is running for the Republican nomination. He’s up against former state Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

In Maryland, Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan expects to dominate the state's GOP Senate primary despite his years-long criticism of Trump, whom Hogan describes as a threat to democracy. The former two-term governor would be the blue state's first Republican senator in more than four decades.

On the Democratic side, Rep. David Trone has been locked in a contentious — and expensive — battle with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

Trone, the co-founder of the Total Wine & More national liquor store chain, has put more than $61 million of his own money into the race. That's just shy of the national record for self-funding a Senate campaign, with much of it going to a months-long TV ad blitz. The three-term congressman says he’s better positioned to beat Hogan in November as a progressive Democrat not beholden to special interests.

Race has been an issue in the primary, with Alsobrooks working to become Maryland’s first Black U.S. senator. Trone apologized in March for what he said was the inadvertent use of a racial slur during a budget hearing.

Alsobrooks has been endorsed by many of the state’s top officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Steny Hoyer and a long list of state lawmakers. She has campaigned on growing economic opportunity, investing in education and protecting abortion rights.

Biden and Trump have already amassed enough delegates to claim the presidential nominations at their respective national conventions this summer. Yet voters on both sides hope to register a significant protest vote Tuesday that will demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Biden-Trump rematch.

Both Biden and Trump won their primaries in West Virginia and Maryland.

Still, Maryland progressives especially unhappy with the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas had encouraged voters to select “uncommitted to any presidential candidate” instead of Biden. There was no uncommitted option in West Virginia or Nebraska.

Everett Bellamy, a Democrat who voted early in Annapolis, said he voted “uncommitted” instead of Biden as a protest against the killing of women and children and noncombatants in Gaza.

“I wanted to send a message,” Bellamy, 74, said after leaving an early voting center.

Meanwhile, Trump's Republican critics cannot choose “uncommitted,” but they can choose his former GOP rival Nikki Haley, who will appear on the ballot in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia despite formally suspending her campaign more than two months ago.

Derek Faux, an independent voter from Charleston, W.V., said he supported Haley, and in other Republican races, he said he voted for the candidates he believed were least like Trump.

“I would rather see moderate, reasonable Republicans than some of the other folks,” said Faux, a librarian.

Tuesday's elections also include two candidates who were intimately involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In West Virginia, a former member of the House of Delegates, Derrick Evans, is running for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District. The 39-year-old Trump loyalist served a three-month jail sentence after livestreaming himself participating in the storming of the U.S. Capitol.

Evans is trying to oust incumbent Republican Rep. Carol Miller.

In Maryland, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn is among nearly two dozen Democrats running in the state's 3rd Congressional District. The 40-year-old Democrat was in the Capitol working to repel the violent mob on Jan. 6.

In Nebraska, Republican Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts both face nominal opposition in their primaries, one of the rare occasions when both senators in a state are on the ballot at the same time. And in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon faces a challenge from his right flank.

In North Carolina, voters finalized their pick of the Trump-endorsed Brad Knott in what had become a one-person Republican primary in the state's 13th Congressional District.

This story has deleted an incorrect reference to a California election being Tuesday. The California election is next week.

Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Peoples reported from Washington.

Follow the AP's coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

FILE - U.S. Rep. David Trone, D-Md., speaks at a news conference Jan. 17, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democrats voting in Maryland's contentious primary for U.S. Senate are divided about who is best positioned to beat Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan. Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are the most prominent candidates in the Democratic primary. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

FILE - Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, center, listens during a bill hearing in Maryland, Jan. 23, 2020, in Annapolis, Md. Democrats voting in Maryland's contentious primary for U.S. Senate are divided about who is best positioned to beat Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan. Alsobrooks and Congressman David Trone are the most prominent candidates in the Democratic primary. (AP Photo/Brian Witte, File)

FILE - Former republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan visits the Bridge Boat Show in Stevensville, Md., April 12, 2024. Democrats voting in Maryland's contentious primary for Senate are divided about who is best positioned to beat Hogan. Congressman David Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks are the most prominent candidates in the Democratic primary. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Primaries in Maryland and West Virginia will shape the battle this fall for a Senate majority

Primaries in Maryland and West Virginia will shape the battle this fall for a Senate majority

Signs are pictured outside an early voting center on Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Rockville, Md. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump look to pad their delegate totals in Maryland Tuesday, May 14. Maryland voters will also decide contested primaries in a Senate race. Former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan's late entry into the race has given Republicans hope of a possible pick-up in a state that hasn't elected a Republican U.S. senator since 1980. The leading Democratic primary candidates are U.S. Rep. David Trone and Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. (AP Photo/Robert Yoon)