UPS Deploying Waymo’s Self-Driving Trucks For Holiday Trial Run
Dallas, TX — The United Parcel Service (UPS) is deploying Waymo Via’s self-driving trucks for a trial run during the holiday season.
The global shipping giant plans to conduct a test of Waymo’s Class 8 trucks equipped with driverless technology over the next few weeks, Waymo said in an announcement on Wednesday.
The self-driving trucks will deliver for UPS’s North American Air Freight unit between facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
“We hope to gather early learnings about how autonomous driving technology can help enhance safety and efficiency, evaluate the performance of the autonomous system and successful delivery of freight, and understand how to refine our autonomous operations in this use case for eventual scaling,” Waymo said.
The two companies first began their partnership in February of 2020 when Waymo’s autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans began shuttling packages from UPS Stores in the Metro Phoenix area to the UPS Tempe (Arizona) hub, as part of a pilot program.
In August of last year, Waymo began testing its fleet of Peterbilt semi-trucks along I-10, I-20 and I-45 through metropolitan areas like El Paso, Dallas, and Houston.
“While it’s still early days, this partnership with UPS is a great example of how Waymo Via is creating an autonomous delivery solution spanning trucking and local delivery that can offer customers unique safety benefits, network flexibility, and scalability,” the company said.
