German transport and logistics provider Hegelmann is to equip some of its North American fleet with TuSimple’s autonomous driving system.

California-based TuSimple s announced its partnership with Hegelmann, which operates a fleet of over 5000 vehicles, with an initial reservation of purpose-built SAE level-four autonomous trucks for operation in North America. The trucks will be equipped with technology based on a platform developed by Navistar.

The partnership is said to signal the symbiotic path of both partners to offer innovations that address the ongoing driver shortage while lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving vehicle and environmental safety.

Hegelmann’s reservation of factory-production units with TuSimple technology is a primary action in developing a logistics network in North America called the TuSimple Autonomous Freight Network (AFN). Early studies show that autonomous trucks in this type of network have the potential to reduce fuel consumption for middle kilometre transportation.

“TuSimple’s innovations will elevate our ability to compete and prosper in the North American market and are analogous to our stated objective to become a global logistics technology adopter,” said Andrew Jasinskas, business development project manager for Hegelmann in the USA. “Undoubtedly autonomous trucks with TuSimple technology are the future of transportation, and Hegelmann’s strategy is to likewise be a standard bearer for innovations that push safety and efficiency to the next era of logistics excellence.”

Lee White, TuSimple vice president, added: “We are pleased to add Hegelmann to our rapidly growing fleet partners who wish to adopt, integrate and scale SAE L4 truck operation in the USA. Hegelmann chose TuSimple as their autonomous vehicle technology partner due to TuSimple’s leadership in the rapidly approaching full-commercialisation of autonomous vehicles.”

TuSimple demonstrated its technology with what it claimed was the industry’s first driver-out (no human intervention or operator) runs in 2021, which the company plans to continue throughout this year as it prepares for full commercialisation. The driver-out pilot programme is the product of a year and a half of work to co-develop an L4 autonomous Class 8 vehicle with Navistar to demonstrate the level of redundancy, reliability, consistency and safety necessary to remove the driver from the truck.

By the end of 2023, TuSimple plans to carry paid freight operations in high-density freight lanes in the southern USA. Driver-out runs have been critical in scaling autonomous trucking operations on the TuSimple AFN.

Hegelmann was founded in 1998 in Germany. The company has established many branches and has become a transcontinental company. Based on more than 24 years of experience, an owned fleet of more than 5000 transport units and the resulting know-how, the company provides a wide range of logistic services. It offers temperature-controlled transport, standard, special, intermodal and non-stop express transport. These include heavy-lift transports, transports of dangerous goods, transporting consolidated cargo, and grouped cargo.

TuSimple is headquartered in San Diego, California, with operations in Arizona, Texas, Europe and China. In 2021, it became the first autonomous trucking company to complete a fully autonomous, driver-out semi-truck run on open public roads without a human in the vehicle or any human intervention. The company also created the first autonomous trucking lane in the USA. It plans to scale its autonomous commercial freight operations on its AFN.