Autonomous trucking collaboration is expanding. Bot Auto announced Thursday a strategic partnership with Ryan Transportation to launch driverless autonomous freight operations. The Houston-based autonomous trucking and technology company and the Overland Park, Kansas-based top 20 freight brokerage will launch driverless autonomous freight operations between Houston and Dallas.
The release notes that Ryan Transportation has emerged as a pioneering brokerage partner willing to showcase the viability of autonomous trucking capacity paired with traditional brokerage operations. The driverless runs are expected to begin this spring.
Bot Auto’s deployment will center on an overnight lane starting in Houston before delivering into the southern Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The corridor, roughly 200 miles, has historically been difficult to service with human drivers due to tight delivery windows.
Overnight lanes are also challenging from an hours-of-service standpoint, as most drivers operate during daytime shifts, making an overnight run more limited. Driver fatigue is another constraint that Bot Auto’s driverless trucks don’t contend with.
“This is an opportunity to provide a high level of service on a lane for a customer who demands essential attention to detail, and our autonomous technology does exactly that,” said Robert Brown, vice president of business development at Bot Auto. “The overnight run is a perfect use case; the robot doesn’t get tired, doesn’t need a reset, and delivers with the same precision every single time.”
The partnership marks another milestone for Bot Auto, which last July partnered with Steves & Sons to launch an autonomous trucking pilot. The company also completed its first driverless hub-to-hub run in Houston, Texas, last September.
More recently, the company partnered with Marsh for a custom autonomous truck fleet insurance package.
Marsh worked with Bot Auto to place its insurance program with an A-rated insurance carrier that underwrites the risk. The specialized plan provides Bot Auto with auto liability, property, general liability, cargo and inland marine protection, complemented by a separate cyber policy.
