When the CEO of FedEx, the global leader in logistics, promises “an enormous effort towards autonomous trucks” this summer, wisdom — conventional or otherwise — says listen up, things are about to get interesting.
Last year, FedEx joined forces with Aurora Innovation — the AV startup that acquired Uber’s self-driving unit in 2020 — and began a pilot program using self-driving trucks to haul goods between Dallas and Houston (with a safety driver on board). That partnership moved Aurora closer to its ambitious goal of launching an autonomous trucking business, without safety drivers, by the end of 2023.
FedEx’s summer teaser and Aurora’s progress toward its goal are just two reasons why we’re thrilled that Sterling Anderson, co-founder and chief product officer at Aurora and Rebecca Yeung, corporate VP of operations science and advanced technology at FedEx will join us onstage at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 on May 18 and May 19 in San Mateo, California.
FedEx has been working internally on its own smaller-scale AV technology for several years. One project, a sidewalk delivery bot named Roxo, was a collaborative effort with DEKA Development & Research Corp. and its founder Dean Kamen, who in …