J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. today announced a long-term, strategic alliance with Waymo Via that will advance innovative efforts to integrate commercial autonomous driving technology in transportation and logistics, with ultimate plans to complete fully autonomous transport in Texas in the next few years.
The expanded collaboration will include multiple pilots to analyse the operational capacity of Waymo Via, the company’s autonomous Class 8 trucking unit powered by the Waymo Driver, to address customer needs in realistic scenarios. Waymo and J.B. Hunt completed their first trial runs last year moving freight along I-45 in Texas for one of J.B. Hunt’s leading customers. The upcoming pilots will take place in the same lane.
The partnership will explore solutions that merge two innovative forces of the transportation industry – autonomous driving technology and the digital marketplace. J.B. Hunt’s technology platform – J.B. Hunt 360° – is an industry leader in digital freight matching and was responsible for processing 1.2m loads in 2020. Waymo has experience in building autonomous driving technology, having driven over 20 million miles on public roads across over 13 U.S. states and 20bn miles in simulation. The combined solution, which would make Waymo Via accessible through J.B. Hunt 360, would be a unique offering with potential to greatly improve transportation efficiency.
The company hopes that the combined solution will be a unique offering.
Source: J.B. Hunt
