Near the US border, Aurora teaches self-driving trucks to pass through checkpoints.
The self-driving startup aurora announced a milestone on Monday. The autonomous driving system is now ready for commercial use. This is to be achieved by the end of 2024. In parallel, the company offers other routes in the American Southwest, including Texas.
Since August, Aurora, in partnership with the U.S. Border Patrol participated in a pilot project investigating how self-driving trucks get through border controls.
These are not international border crossings, but rather internal border checkpoints located 25 to 100 miles from the country’s southern and northern borders, which serve the U.S. Border Patrol uses to deter illegal immigration and smuggling. According to the federal agency, a division of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, operates the U.S. Border Patrol 35 such checkpoints on major US highways and byways.
Some of these checkpoints are along routes that Aurora and its competitors will use for autonomous driving in the future, and this includes in particular Texas. The Aurora route between El Paso and Fort Worth there is a checkpoint along Interstate 10 in Sierra Blanca. Here one is cooperating with the Border Patrol to develop practices and protocols for autonomous trucks.
When the trucks reach the checkpoint, a sign with flashing lights will alert everyone trucks – both human and autonomous – in the center and right lane of the three lanes available. There are signs specially designed for self-driving systems that either allow them to proceed or ask them to stop and be inspected.
Aurora’s trucks have traversed the checkpoint more than 200 times in autonomous and manual modes since the pilot began. These trips were made while the company was transporting goods for partners like Werner, Uber Freight, and FedEx.
Even in autonomous mode, trucks currently have a human in the cab to oversee operations. But these will be removed soon. Then the system should also be scaled.