Volvo Autonomous Solutions has opened its North American headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, the Swedish truck OEM announced.

The new business unit will be dedicated to setting up its first autonomous freight corridors, which will run from Dallas/Forth Worth to El Paso, and from Dallas to Houston. To prepare for commercial launch, VAS has also started to haul loads with trucks using drivers for key customers like DHL and Uber Freight to test aspects of the transport solution and establish frameworks and procedures for safe and reliable operations.

“At Volvo Autonomous Solutions, we believe the path to autonomy at scale is through reducing the friction and complications around ownership and operations for customers," said Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, in a news release. 

"This is why we have taken the decision to be the single interface to our customers and take full ownership of the elements required for commercial autonomous transport. With the opening of our office in Texas and start of operational activities, we are building the foundations for a transport solution that will change the way we move goods on highways."

Sasko Cuklev, head of on-road solutions for Volvo Autonomous Solutions, added, "Through our Autonomous Transport Solution, our ambition is to create a new source of industry capacity that will ease some of the burden of the increasing demand for freight while also enabling local drivers to shift into short-haul jobs that will keep them closer to home.

"This will unlock significant efficiencies in the entire supply chain and benefit everyone in the transportation industry."

Partnerships to Drive Industry Innovation

Volvo Autonomous Solutions is a part of the Volvo Group. The Autonomous Transport Solutions offered by VAS includes hardware, software, and services required to run autonomous transport operations.

On highways, the solution is operated based on a hub-to-hub model where autonomous trucks take on the highway portion of the driving, operating all hours of the day and night between transfer hubs while human drivers complete local operations.

To accelerate the development and adoption of autonomous transport solutions, VAS is partnering with others in the industry, including DHL and Uber Freight who are part of the VAS key customer program. The program is aimed at shippers, carriers, logistics service providers and freight brokers whom VAS will work with to pilot and commercialize autonomous transport solutions.

VAS has also formed a partnership with autonomous-technology provider Aurora. At the heart of the partnership is the integration of the Aurora Driver with Volvo’s on-highway truck offering.