Being available now, will HAD play a role as a steppingstone to adoption of full L4 systems? And, if HAD has strong uptake, will it motivate the truck OEMs to accelerate their own rollout of such systems? In the near term, it will be fascinating to see what transpires with Traton and their U.S. subsidiary Navistar, now that their technology partnership with TuSimple is kaput. I'm quite certain they aren't sitting on their hands; they seek to have a strong play in the AV truck market as a strategic necessity. For highway operations, current efforts aim to automate the "ramp to ramp" long haul, augmented by transferring the load to human driven trucks for the last mile.

This article is part of a VB Lab Insight series paid for by Plus. Breaking away from the competition, Plus, a Silicon Valley-based provider of autonomous trucking technology, is taking an innovative driver-in approach to commercialization that aligns with the critical challenges facing the trucking industry today. According to newly-released estimates of traffic fatalities in 2021, crashes involving at least one large truck increased 13% compared to the previous year. With a nationwide truck driver shortage estimated at 80,000 last year and growing, PlusDrive, Plus's market-ready supervised autonomous driving solution, helps long-haul operators reduce stress while improving safety for all road users. In 2021 Plus achieved a critical industry milestone, becoming the first self-driving trucking technology company to deliver a commercial product to the hands of customers.