\n Volvo, Waabi Start Dallas-Houston Autonomous Freight | Image by 10\/05\/26 Volvo press release <\/p>\n
Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi began hauling customer freight with autonomous trucks between Dallas and Houston, the companies announced Monday, expanding the use of self-driving commercial transportation along one of Texas\u2019 busiest freight corridors.<\/p>\n
The Volvo announcement<\/a> said Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks powered by the Waabi Driver are now moving freight for logistics company Warp directly to third-party facilities along the Dallas-Houston corridor. The trucks are operating autonomously, although an observer currently remains in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n Freight Moves Into Customer Operations<\/p>\n The launch marks the first customer operation under Volvo Autonomous Solutions\u2019 partnership with Waabi.<\/p>\n Warp operates a freight network handling both less-than-truckload, or LTL, and full-truckload shipments. Unlike a dedicated route carrying freight for a single customer, LTL networks can combine shipments from multiple customers while coordinating different destinations, schedules, and loads.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether with Warp and Waabi, we are bringing autonomous freight into customer operations in one of logistics\u2019 most demanding segments,\u201d Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, said in Monday\u2019s announcement. \u201cThis shows how quickly our ecosystem can adapt to new customers and more complex operations.\u201d<\/p>\n Volvo said its autonomous transport system combines the truck and Waabi\u2019s autonomous-driving technology with fleet and transport management, terminals, customer endpoints, operations, and vehicle support.<\/p>\n The Volvo VNL Autonomous was designed with redundant systems covering six safety-critical functions, according to the company.<\/p>\n For now, however, the operation is not humanless.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently autonomous hauls are run with an observer in the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d Volvo stated.<\/p>\n Volvo is not new to autonomous freight operations on the Dallas-Houston corridor. In May, Volvo Autonomous Solutions announced<\/a> that it had begun carrying freight for DSV between Aurora terminals in Dallas and Houston using the Volvo VNL Autonomous integrated with the Aurora Driver. A safety driver was present during the initial phase.<\/p>\n The new Warp operation differs by pairing Volvo\u2019s truck with Waabi\u2019s autonomous-driving system and moving freight directly to third-party facilities, including within LTL networks.<\/p>\n Dallas-Houston Autonomous Race Accelerates<\/p>\n The announcement comes less than two weeks after The Dallas Express reported<\/a> that Kodiak AI selected the Dallas-Houston corridor for its first planned fully driverless long-haul highway operation.<\/p>\n Kodiak said in September that it was consistently completing end-to-end freight runs between its Lancaster hub and Houston without human intervention by its autonomous-driving system, while keeping a human aboard as it prepares for unsupervised operations. The company is targeting a driverless launch before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n The corridor already hosts other autonomous freight operations.<\/p>\n Aurora Innovation launched commercial driverless trucking between Dallas and Houston in 2025. After initially operating without a person in the driver\u2019s seat, Aurora later returned observers to the front seat of some trucks at manufacturer PACCAR\u2019s request, as <\/a>The Dallas Express reported<\/a>. Aurora said at the time that its autonomous-driving system remained responsible for all driving tasks.<\/p>\n The Dallas Express later reported<\/a> that Aurora expanded its Dallas-Houston service to nighttime runs along I-45.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, The Dallas Express reported<\/a> that Bot Auto and Ryan Transportation were preparing humanless freight operations between Houston and the Dallas area.<\/p>\n