Self-driving truck technology company Plus.ai has announced that it successfully completed the first coast-to-coast commercial freight run with an autonomous truck on behalf of Land O’Lakes Inc.
Considered the first L4 U.S. cross-country commercial pilot, the hub-to-hub trip covered 2,800 miles from Tulare, California to Quakertown, Pennsylvania in less than three days, hauling a fully-loaded refrigerated trailer of perishable cargo.
The autonomous truck was equipped with Plus.ai’s advanced autonomous driving system, which uses a variety of software and technology including multimodal sensor fusion, deep learning visual algorithms, and simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) technologies.
The vehicle drove primarily in autonomous mode during the cross-country journey, but a safety driver was on board during the entirety of the journey to monitor and assume control if necessary. A safety engineer was also present to monitor system operations.
During the continuous cross-country journey, the Plus.ai autonomous truck safely operated during both the day and night through varying conditions including the expansive plains of Kansas, the winding roads of the Rockies, and at over 11,000 feet elevation. While heading east, the truck also encountered rainy and snowy roads.
