Self-driving trucks, TuSimple, Inc., San Diego, California, USA

UPS has been secretly hauling cargo back and forth between Phoenix and Tuczon, Arizona for over three months, courtesy of their minority stake in automated trucking startup TuSimple. The tractor trailers are outfitted with nine cameras, as well as LiDAR sensors, those spinning contraptions often attached to the roofs of self-driving vehicles to help them "see."

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At TuSimple, we’re committed to making freight transportation safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly

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On December 22nd, TuSimple made history by becoming the first to successfully test a fully autonomous semi-truck on open public roads without a human in the vehicle and without human intervention. The run took place the evening of December 22nd and required TuSimple’s upfitted autonomous semi-truck to begin its journey from a large railyard in Tucson, Arizona, and travel more than 80 miles on surface streets and highways, safely arriving at a high-volume distribution center in the Phoenix metro area. Along the journey, TuSimple’s Autonomous Driving System (ADS) successfully navigated surface streets, traffic signals, on-ramps, off-ramps, emergency lane vehicles, and highway lane changes in open traffic while naturally interacting with other motorists.

The following is a list of notable on-road events which demonstrate the maturity of TuSimple's Autonomous Driving System (ADS):

1. Start
2. Pedestrian
3. W3 merge into highway
4. Accept merge in
5. Active changing to the right lane
6. Parallel truck looking into the cabin
7. Curious parallel truck checking us again
8. No interaction but a little bit oscillation
9. Aggressive cut in
10. Avoid ELV
11. Overtake slow vehicles
12. Right lane preference
13. Avoid ELV and interact with other vehicles
14. Avoid ELV
15. Avoid ELV, Emergency vehicle detected
16. Avoid ELV
17. Detection of police vehicle, and lane change afterwards
18. Avoid police vehicle
19. Right lane preference after the ELV
20. Clear the blind-zone
21. Last turn and End of the Trip

About TuSimple:

TuSimple is a global autonomous driving technology company, headquartered in San Diego, California, with operations in Arizona, Texas, Europe, and China. Founded in 2015, TuSimple is developing a commercial-ready Level 4 (SAE) fully autonomous driving solution for long-haul heavy-duty trucks. TuSimple aims to transform the $4 trillion global truck freight industry through the company's leading proprietary AI technology, which makes it possible for our autonomous trucks to see 1,000 meters away, operate nearly continuously and consume 10% less fuel than manually driven trucks.

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