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An Einride autonomous truck leaves the parking lot at Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
The heavy duty\u00a0cabless autonomous truck pulls out of a lot onto a quiet street outside a North Austin brewery, flexing its ability to maneuver alongside other vehicles on a public street before turning around, coming back and parking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli<\/a>, whose company built the truck, and other leaders in autonomous and electric trucking say such big rigs soon could be a common sight across Texas.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n An Einride autonomous truck turns onto a street near Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman An Einride autonomous truck is parked at a loading dock at Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman An Einride autonomous truck is parked outside Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin. A LIDAR sensor is visible on the corner of the vehicle.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman The interior of a Tesla Semi truck.<\/p>\n Tesla\/Courtesy of Tesla<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m quite comfortable with the trajectory of the regulatory environment,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cWith the environment today, we and other players in industry will be able to deploy tens and maybe hundreds of vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n Stockholm-based Einride<\/a>, which became the first company to operate an autonomous truck on a public road in 2019, says it already operates one of the world\u2019s largest electric heavy-duty fleets<\/a>. Now, the company is putting its self-driving trucks on the road across the U.S.<\/p>\n RELATED: Autonomous big rigs headed to Texas toll road between Austin and San Antonio<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In late March, it\u00a0received approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to operate its autonomous big rig in Austin \u2014 where Einride has U.S. headquarters \u2014 after receiving similar approvals for deployments in Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina and Tennessee.<\/p>\n A week earlier, it announced that it\u2019s turning a 41-mile stretch of the Texas 130 toll road between San Antonio and Austin into an autonomous freight corridor in partnership with SH 130 Concession Co.\u00a0<\/p>\n Roozbeh Charli, CEO of Einride, speaks at an autonomous truck demonstration event at Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Charli said the company is aiming to start testing by the end of this year, then gradually increase testing before moving to commercial operations.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Its trucks will join a still-relatively small fleet of electric vehicles operating in Texas. Now, there are only about 250 heavy duty EVs on the road, according to data<\/a> from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that number could grow rapidly.<\/p>\n Nevoya, Tesla, others<\/p>\n John Verdon, co-founder and chief commercial officer of California-based electric truck operator\u00a0Nevoya Inc., said the pilot program it began this year on Interstate 45 between Houston and Dallas \u201cwill establish its operational blueprint for expanding to other Texas corridors and opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe I-45 corridor is one of the highest-volume freight lanes in Texas, connecting two of the state\u2019s largest distribution and manufacturing hubs,\u201d Verdon said via email. \u201cGiven the density of freight and the length of haul (~240 miles), it aligns well with truck capabilities and our operational model that optimizes utilization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A prototype of a Tesla Semi truck.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tesla\/Courtesy of Tesla<\/p>\n By next year, dozens of Tesla Semi electric trucks also are expected to be operating in Texas. The\u00a0vehicle\u2019s specs<\/a> boast a range of about 500 miles and up to 60% of range after 30 minutes of charging.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really leaning into the safety side on this and trying to make it the safest truck on the road both for the occupant and for everybody else around,\u201d Tesla Inc. Semi Program Director Dan\u00a0Priestley said in a recent interview<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Other companies are already operating or testing autonomous trucks in the busy corridor and elsewhere in Texas.<\/p>\n A year ago, Aurora\u00a0launched its commercial self-driving trucking service<\/a> without a human safety monitor for the route between Dallas and Houston. By late July, the Pennsylvania-based company was operating three semis piloted by its Aurora Driver technology on trucks equipped with a suite of sensors including cameras, radar and\u00a0lidar. It later expanded to nighttime operation and added an El Paso route.<\/p>\n A Peterbilt 579 powered by the Aurora Driver.<\/p>\n Aurora\/Courtesy of Aurora<\/p>\n In February, Aurora announced driverless operations had been validated on the approximately 1,000-mile route between Fort Worth and Phoenix. It also began supervised autonomous freight deliveries for\u00a0Hirschbach Motor Lines between Dallas and Laredo for berry company Driscoll\u2019s Inc., and for Detmar Logistics\u00a0between Midland and Capital Sand\u2019s mining site in Monahans.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 2024, Kodiak Robotics began testing its system and by early 2025 the California company announced the\u00a0first deliveries had been completed by its RoboTrucks for Austin-based Atlas Energy Solutions Inc.<\/p>\n Also in late 2024, Houston\u2019s Bot Auto began testing its autonomous big-rig\u00a0system between its home city and San Antonio. By last fall, it was conducting tests with no human safety monitor present.\u00a0<\/p>\n Einride\u2019s vehicle, though,\u00a0is so far the only\u00a0cabless, purpose-built autonomous heavy truck hitting the road. The other companies\u2019 vehicles are standard semis made autonomous by installation of sensor arrays and computers, the same way Waymo installs its\u00a0system of cameras, radar and lidar on a Jaguar I-PACE SUV for use as a fully autonomous\u00a0robotaxi.<\/p>\n An Einride autonomous truck is parked outside Austin Beerworks on Thursday, March 19, 2026 in Austin. A LIDAR sensor is visible on the corner of the vehicle.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Texas boom<\/p>\n So much testing is happening in Texas, Charli said, because the state has been welcoming.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cTexas has been a state that has actively taken a forward-leaning approach to attracting autonomous (vehicles) into the state,\u201d Charli said, pointing as evidence to Austin\u2019s reputation as a testing ground for robotaxis. \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s also rapidly attracting human-driven electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks, said Lori Clark, senior program manager for the alternative fuels and energy team at the North Central Texas Council of Governments.<\/p>\n She noted that while California is also popular for such activity, electricity is less expensive in Texas, the state has more infrastructure capacity and permitting is generally done more quickly than in California. And, she said, there\u2019s opportunity in the fast-growing Texas triangle, the\u00a0megaregion that contains the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin metro areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI-45 is a very popular route. Everybody talks about trucks that are based in proximity to ports or intermodal facilities, warehousing, where they go back to base, but ports draw a lot of attention,\u201d Clark said. \u201cSo we\u2019re excited to see the I-45 deployments start soon and I\u2019m sure I-35 won\u2019t be far behind. And we\u2019ve always heard people talk about I-10 as the answer. So we\u2019ll see which one leg of the triangle wins out.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n An illustration shows a Tesla Semi at a charging station. Infrastructure to support electric trucking is increasing in Texas.<\/p>\n Tesla Inc.<\/p>\n Development supporting electric deployment is growing, too. In January, the Texas Department of Transportation received permission<\/a> from the Federal Highway Administration to move into the second\u00a0phase of its\u00a0plan for EV infrastructure. The next phase will enable investment in county seats, metropolitan planning organization areas and fill gaps across rural Texas for off-interstate travelers, enabling local farm and work trucks to access the charging network.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clark said her team has had a handful of conversations in recent weeks with companies looking to build medium- and heavy-duty truck charging hubs in the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a kind of a sudden surge of interest in companies that are looking for locations to build the infrastructure,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re asking about the incentives. In some cases, the incentives are great, but they don\u2019t really make a difference. They\u2019re just gravy on top.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In January, Pilot Travel Centers announced an agreement with Tesla to install its Semi Chargers, saying the move expands on the work it has been doing for the past few years on the passenger vehicle side to build out a coast-to-coast network of EV chargers. The Tesla charging stations will be installed at Pilot truck stop locations along Interstate 5, Interstate 10 and several other major corridors. The first sites are expected to open this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n A\u00a0Tesla map\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0of its planned megacharger network indicated sites would go up in the Texas triangle, to the south of San Antonio and as far west as El Paso.<\/p>\n Other Texas trucking centers also are adding charging capacities for heavy-duty EVs along major interstate corridors.<\/p>\n Emissions reduction<\/p>\n Such moves to increase use of electric vehicles could also help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, supporters say\u00a0\u2014 and there\u2019s room for improvement\u00a0in trucking. Though buses, trucks and other heavy duty vehicles make up only 5% of total U.S. traffic, the Environmental Protection Agency says they are\u00a0responsible for nearly 25% <\/a>of all transportation-related emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Even if the truck is not electric, backers of autonomous systems say they can help bring down emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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