science

Self-driving truck

Self-driving truck is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Self-driving truck rather than just read about it. In short: A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process.

Key takeaways

Self-driving truck belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Self-driving truck to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Self-driving truck from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process. In September 2022, Guidehouse Insights listed Waymo, Aurora, TuSimple, Gatik, Plus, Kodiak, Daimler Truck, Einride, Locomation, and Embark Trucks (acquired by Applied Intuition) as the top 10 vendors in automated trucking. And, Transport Topics in November 2022 is listing fourteen companies to know about self-driving truck; Aurora, Waymo, TuSimple, Gatik, Locomation, Torc Robotics, Waabi, Einride, Plus, Embark, Kodiak, Robotic Research, Outrider and Pronto. In February 2024, this list was updated to reflect the exit of Waymo, TuSimple, Embark, and Locomation, as well as the addition of Stack AV. Since 2022, daily testing occurs with human safety drivers behind the wheel, often performing commercial pilots for customers. Only in limited validation runs on test tracks have these autonomous trucking companies performed driverless operations where no human is located in the vehicle anymore. The reason is a self-imposed high acceptance bar for safe deployment of this technology. In December 2024, Kodiak became the first company to launch commercial driverless operations of autonomous trucks in the United States. Operating on private lease roads in West Texas, the company provides a driver-as-a-service solution on customer-owned heavy-duty trucks. Self-driving trucks are expected to be deployed more widely on highways in the United States by 2027. Several government agencies in the U.S. and Europe have announced new legislation surrounding the use of autonomous trucks. Some challenges of bringing self-driving trucks on public roads include, but are not limited to, road safety, the need for human drivers inside the vehicle, and the lack of specific regulations surrounding driverless vehicles.

History

1990s As recorded in June 1995 in Popular Science Magazine, self-driving trucks were being developed for combat convoys, whereby only the lead truck would be driven by a human and the following trucks would rely on satellite navigation, an inertial guidance system and ground-speed sensors.

2000s Komatsu made the earliest development in autonomous trucks testing a fleet of five Ultra Class trucks in Codelco Mine Radomiro Tomic in Chile in 2005 then in 2007 was installed the first working fleet in the mine Gabriela Mistral in Chile, also a Codelco property.

2010s Lockheed Martin, with funding from the U.S. Army, developed an autonomous truck convoy system that uses a lead truck operated by a human driver with a number of trucks following autonomously. Developed as part of the Army's Autonomous Mobility Applique System (AMAS), the system consists of an autonomous driving package that, as of 2014, has been installed on more than nine types of vehicles and has completed more than 55,000 hours of driving at speeds up to 64 km/h (40 mph). As of 2017, the Army was planning to field 100–200 trucks as part of a rapid-fielding program. In Europe, truck platooning was being considered with the Safe Road Trains for the Environment approach, a project that ended in September 2012. Since May 2015, Daimler has been testing self-driving trucks on public roads in Nevada, USA. In the USA, self-driving vehicles (such as the Inspiration Truck) are already permitted under certain conditions.

2020s MAN develops autonomous trucks. In test runs at Hamburg's CTA terminal in 2021, a truck drove autonomously across the terminal, navigated in mixed traffic, and parked with precise reverse maneuvering. Outside the terminal, control was handled by a driver. In 2026, after launching in 2025, Aurora trucks became able to drive nonstop from Phoenix to Fort Worth, a roughly 1,000 mile, 15 hour trip. At the time Its autonomous fleet numbered 5 trucks operating between Dallas/Ft Worth, El Paso, and Houston.

Terminology

US truck classification Self-driving trucks are being developed for all classes of trucks including, light duty, medium duty.

Light-duty trucks The EPA defines a light-duty truck to be any truck with a maximum payload capacity of 4,000 pounds and weight of 8,500 pounds (in the US only). In Europe, a light-duty truck is classified as a truck with a maximum weight of 7,720 pounds. The U.S. Census Bureau defines a light-duty truck to have a maximum weight of 10,000 pounds. Examples of light-duty trucks include pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans. The 2023 Ford F-150 is an example of a light-duty truck with the new Ford BlueCruise 1.2 Technology.

Medium-duty trucks The U.S. Census Bureau, unlike the EPA, established a third classification for medium duty trucks. A medium-duty truck is classified as a truck with a weight range of 10,000 to 26,000 pounds. Examples of medium-duty trucks include box trucks and school buses. The UK government recently awarded €81 million for the production of self-driving technology in public buses.

Heavy-duty trucks The EPA defines a heavy-duty truck to have a minimum weight of 8500 pounds (in the US). The US Census Bureau defines a heavy-duty truck with a minimum weight of 26,000 pounds. Examples of heavy-duty trucks include cement mixers, mobile cranes, and semi trucks.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Self-driving truck

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Self-driving truck claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Self-driving truck before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Self-driving truck ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Self-driving truck

In research: Self-driving truck appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Self-driving truck in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Self-driving truck is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Automotive technologies, Self-driving cars, Trucks, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Self-driving truck outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Self-driving truck” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Self-driving truck in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Self-driving truck means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Self-driving truck out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Self-driving truck in simple terms?

Why does Self-driving truck matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Self-driving truck?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Self-driving truck.