Hundreds of driverless trucks will be on Fort Worth-area roads soon following the creation of a new statewide route to El Paso.
The push for more autonomous vehicles in North Texas comes as the Fort Worth City Council in November created a new district in the Alliance area for the deployment of semi- and fully autonomous semitrucks.
The technology is of interest to Alliance’s nearly 600 customers, many of whom have looked into autonomous trucking technology, said Ian Kinne, leader of the Mobility Innovation Zone within AllianceTexas.
“We see in the future, autonomous trucking could be a big part of the infrastructure story here,” Kinne said.
Aurora Innovation Inc. announced the route in October after a successful, limited trial of its new autonomous truck hardware between Dallas and Houston in April. The course was the first regular long-haul run in the country.
The company announced plans to add hundreds of trucks to its fleet in 2026, according to a press release. The newest hardware doubles their lidar sensors’ detection range and allows the trucks to operate in harsher weather conditions.
Aurora also plans to extend the El Paso route to Phoenix spanning about 1,000 miles and 15 hours of driving from their terminal just west of Fort Worth on I-20.
See here, here, and here for some background. The fleet is still quite small at this time, in the single digits. But that is sure to increase in the near-to-medium future.
Autonomous trucks could offset road congestion by traveling overnight when fewer cars are on the road, said Stephen Mattingly, a University of Texas at Arlington professor who focuses on transportation.
No requirement exists for driverless trucks to travel overnight, but the possibility has been discussed, Bettger said. Municipal policies would be needed to mandate such travel restrictions, she said.
The route driverless trucks are traveling matters as well, Mattingly said.
Aurora’s terminal sits west of Fort Worth along Interstate 20 where Aurora Driver-powered trucks could avoid urban traffic.
“If I was going to choose someplace to have the trucks that would certainly be an ideal location,” Mattingly said.
Along the route between Fort Worth and El Paso, customers of autonomous trucks can expect increased traffic through Weatherford, Bettger said. The city encompasses both I-20 and U.S. Highway 180 and is a big traffic concern along the route, she said.
Those trucks still have to get to that hub outside of Fort Worth, or if they only travel that far then some other trucks will be used to get what they’re transporting to and from their ultimate destinations. As such, the effect on traffic inside Fort Worth seems minimal to me. And while these trucks can surely do most of their driving at night, it’s a long damn way from Fort Worth to El Paso, some 700+ miles as I recall from an old spring break trip. Some of those driving hours are going to spill over into daytime one way or the other.