It’s the first coast-to-coast commercial freight trip made by a self-driving truck, traveling from Tulare, California, to Quakertown, Pennsylvania in less than three days. (video: Plus.ai)
Land O’Lakes needs to deliver “a lot” of butter this time of year—and an innovative startup helped to achieve exactly that with a 2,800-mile, coast-to-coast delivery of 40,000 pounds of butter.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with technology leaders like Plus.ai to pilot autonomous trucks for our shipping needs,” says Yone Dewberry, chief supply chain officer for Land O’Lakes.
A self driving truck for the first coast-to-coast commercial freight trip
It’s the first coast-to-coast commercial freight trip made by a self-driving truck, traveling from Tulare, California, to Quakertown, Pennsylvania in less than three days.
While there was a safety driver on board at all times, the truck ran autonomously through all kinds of weather and road conditions.
It’s critical that Land O’Lakes reliably and efficiently delivers butter this holiday season — many cooking and baking traditions depend on it.
The driving system uses a bunch of tech to do this safely, including cutting-edge sensors, deep learning algorithms and simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) technologies.
Plus.ai and the self-driving trucking technology: a fully-loaded refrigerated trailer
Plus.ai is a leading provider of self-driving trucking technology, headquartered in Cupertino, CA.
Plus.ai completed the industry’s first coast-to-coast commercial freight run by a self-driving truck in a record three days.
On behalf of Land O’Lakes, Inc., the hub-to-hub journey spanned 2,800 miles from Tulare, CA to Quakertown, PA. This is the first Level 4 U.S. cross-country commercial pilot hauling a fully-loaded refrigerated trailer, which in this case was filled with over 40,000 pounds of butter.
Importante milestone for Plus.ai’s autonomous driving system
The continuous journey was an important milestone in validating the maturity, safety and reliability of Plus.ai’s autonomous driving system and its ability to safely handle a wide range of weather and road conditions.
Driving across interstate 15 and interstate 70, our truck successfully navigated winding roads in the Rockies, long tunnels, high elevation of 11,000+ feet, day and night driving, wet and snowy roads, and temperatures that ranged from 18 degrees to 75 degrees.
A safety driver was onboard at all times to monitor and assume control if needed, and a safety engineer was present to monitor system operations.
The use of self-driving trucks, the potential is clear
Widespread use of self-driving trucks is still a few years out, but the potential is clear.
“This cross-country freight run with Land O’Lakes shows the safety, efficiency and maturity of our autonomous trucks,” said Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus.ai. in a release.
This is part of how Land O’Lakes is growing with innovative partners to give us an edge—including using digital suppliers (like Uber Freight) and automation to improve the customer experience.
