FedEx is expanding its autonomous freight pilot in Texas in collaboration with Aurora Innovation.

The shipper is doubling the commercial lanes it uses for autonomous freight transport between Dallas to Houston, and Fort Worth to El Paso.

Aurora autonomous trucks began to transport FedEx shipments between Aurora’s new terminals in Fort Worth and El Paso in March 2022.

Aurora is making the 600-mile trip on a weekly basis with safety drivers on board. The company expects to increase the frequency of trips in the coming months. Aurora continues to move shipments for FedEx between Aurora’s South Dallas terminal and its new Houston terminal on a daily basis.

According to the company, since the commercial pilot began in September 2021, Aurora’s deliveries of FedEx shipments between Dallas and Houston have been 100% on time. Aurora is moving trailers for FedEx during various weather conditions and all hours of the day and night, optimizing fleet utilization. Aurora completed daily hauls during the 2021 peak Holiday season, the busiest time of year for FedEx. To date, the two companies have completed 60,000 miles with zero safety incidents.

“Innovation is in our DNA – our culture drives us to think radically and differently, finding new ways to use technology to enhance safety, improve our operations, empower our team members and help our customers succeed,” said Rebecca Yeung, Corporate Vice President, Operations Science & Advanced Technology, FedEx Corporation. “Aurora has been a like-minded collaborator, helping us learn from and grow our autonomous trucking solutions. We look forward to our continued work together as we test further integration of autonomous technology into our operations to build a collaborative, robust network of solutions to respond to growing customer demand.”

“Some time ago, I was asked why the general public should care about autonomous trucking. This is why. In six months of working with FedEx, we’ve safely, reliably, and efficiently transported packages for tens of thousands of FedEx customers,” said Sterling Anderson, Aurora Co-founder and Chief Product Officer. “This lane expansion came ahead of schedule and we’re delighted to continue building the future of trucking with one of the country’s biggest and most important transportation companies.”