The real barrier to driverless trucks is no longer software

Liu said PlusAI pushed the retrofit model to its limits, outfitting a triple-digit fleet for customers including Amazon. 

The primary advantage of retrofitting is speed.

“It is the most facet to market approach because from creating a prototype and demo point of view you don’t have to go through this rigorous multi-year process to qualify your design,” Liu said.

“We understand how that business operates. We know all the pros and cons of that model,” Liu added. “You can produce a prototype system very quickly. But on the flip side, it is not a scalable model.”

Other challenges compound quickly. Retrofit costs run high, quality becomes unpredictable when every truck is unique, and maintenance support remains inadequate.

“The quality of retrofitting is very, very hard to predict and hard to manage because every single truck is different,” Liu said.

Another challenge is if you sell a retrofitted truck to a customer, they often want help keeping up with service and repairs.

“We need to service this truck based on that becoming our product that we need to provide services and maintenance going forward,” Liu said. “But from an OEM point of view, if these trucks are factory-produced and installed – International alone has 951 dealerships that can provide services – That’s just a huge contrast.”

The Case for Factory-Built Trucks

To adopt driverless trucks, fleets naturally have much higher expectations and concerns. Fleets live and die by uptime. Long-haul trucks accumulate 100,000 miles or more annually with lifespans exceeding 1 million miles. 

Such operational intensity demands fail-operational capability — redundant sensing, compute and actuation systems designed into the vehicle platform rather than bolted on afterward.

For a fleet of five trucks, the artisanal upfitting approach works, but once you reach 5,000 trucks, it becomes impossible.

“When you’re building vehicles onesie-twosie, upfitting them, the build processes tend to be a little more artisanal,” Abuelsamid said. “You can’t necessarily guarantee that every truck is going to be built exactly the same way, and that’s what you need for especially a commercial vehicle.”

The hardware requirements also include redundant steering and braking actuators, backup power supplies, safety computers and integrated networking. These components require more design validation and are a part of the vehicle architecture.

“These are safety-critical systems, and in order to produce a safe automated truck, the manufacturer must design these systems and properly validate them,” the Telemetry report states. “This isn’t something that can be achieved in the aftermarket by adding on systems not designed for that specific vehicle.”

OEM Partnerships Unlock Service Networks

The relationship between Waymo and Chrysler was described as an OEM and autonomous relationship template. When Waymo approached Chrysler in 2016 for Pacifica minivans, the automaker proposed factory-installed custom wiring harnesses and hardware modifications rather than dealer purchases followed by hand installation.

“Chrysler said, ‘Okay, fine. We’ll sell you these, but let’s work together and we’ll work with you to make the necessary modifications to the vehicle and have it ready,’” Abuelsamid said.

Compared to consumer automotive OEMS, the commercial trucking space is much more concentrated. Four truck OEMs account for 99.9% of new Class 8 sales in the U.S.: Daimler, Paccar, Volvo and Traton Group (International Trucks, MAN, Scania). Each of these OEMs also have an autonomous truck technology partner, or subsidiary.

PlusAI partners with Traton Group, Iveco Group and Hyundai. Aurora works with Paccar and Volvo Group. Waabi has aligned with Volvo. Torc Robotics operates under Daimler Truck North America.

For the redundant systems, partnership also extent to the Tier 1 suppliers. OEMs work with the Tier 1s Bosch, ZF, Aptiv to provide validated subsystems including electronic control units, sensors and actuators.

Tier 1s then orchestrate lower-tier suppliers. This collaboration optimizes cost, performance, quality and reliability in ways startups cannot replicate independently.

For the driverless truck developers — typically smaller companies or startups, they lack close supplier relationships. OEMs secure preferential pricing through higher production volumes and lower default risk. Supply constraints give legacy OEM customers delivery preference over newcomers.

Abuelsamid also noted OEMs are also more experienced on the service and parts side. Abuelsamid emphasized that factory-built systems simplify diagnostics. “The service techs know what parts to put on there. They know where to find the parts. They know how to do the diagnostics and removal and replacement.”

The Bottom Line for Fleets

Fleet economics drive the urgency, but the potential higher driverless truck costs must be made up by the productivity gains. Driver costs represent up to 40 percent of total operating expenses. It’s estimated that autonomous trucks can cut approximately $1.00 off the average $2.25 per-mile cost while running 24/7 instead of the 11-hour daily limit for human drivers.

“Every single truck if you convert from a human-driven truck to an autonomous truck can provide the fleet up to four and a half times more profit,” Liu said.

Plus AI currently operates commercially in Texas with International Motor and targets 2027 for removing safety drivers entirely. The timeline depends on validated safety cases and factory-line production.