Berkshire Hathaway’s McLane started a pilot program with autonomous trucking company Aurora Innovation in 2023 which now runs two round-trips daily between Dallas and Houston, seven days a week. McLane is now planning new autonomous freight routes between its distribution centers and restaurants across the U.S. Sun Belt by year-end, and has plans to cover additional McLane business in the future.
Aurora Innovation
Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary McLane is planning to deploy self-driving trucking technology from Aurora Innovation on routes in Texas and across the U.S. Sun Belt by the end of the year, expanding on an autonomous freight pilot program the companies began in 2023.
Temple, Texas-based McLane is one of the largest distribution companies in the U.S., with more than 80 distribution centers that cover nearly every zip code in the country, and 25,000 employees. It will use the Aurora Driver technology in long-haul trucking to move supplies, including perishables, to restaurant brands.
The existing pilot included two round-trips daily between Dallas and Houston, seven days a week, with what is called “supervised” autonomous technology controlling the “middle mile” in long-haul trucking, while McLane drivers take over for last-mile local delivery of loads to customers using separate trucks.
Since 2023, McLane routes using this technology logged 280,000 autonomous miles in Texas, covering 1,400 loads delivered to restaurants. Now McLane has approved driverless operations between Dallas and Houston and plans to add new routes between McLane distribution centers across the U.S. Sun Belt by the end of the year.
“Autonomous technology helps us drive greater efficiency across the supply chain, while our drivers remain focused on the critical last mile — and continuing to serve as the face of our company to customers,” Susan Adzick, president of McLane Restaurant, said in a statement.
Trucks operating in the middle-mile of logistics networks move orders between centralized distribution facilities and last-mile delivery points. Automating the middle mile is a current focus for many distribution networks, including at Amazon, and for self-driving freight companies.
The companies declined to specify the number of trucks or loads to be part of driverless hauls, only saying that Aurora Driver software-powered trucks will continue to make multiple trips between Dallas and Houston every day.
Importantly, there is still a human “observer” in the cab on these routes, which move loads on trucks from OEM Paccar, which has requested the observers remain in the cabs for now. Unlike “supervised” trips, the observer never operates the vehicle and Aurora Driver is “fully responsible for all driving tasks, including pulling over to a safe location if required,” according to the company. Aurora has plans to deploy a new fleet of trucks from Volkswagen subsidiary International LT starting this quarter that will not have observers, with 200 trucks in all expected by the end of the year. Aurora declined to say whether McLane had plans to adopt these trucks. Aurora is McLane’s only current self-driving truck partner.
The companies said there are plans to expand the effort in the future. Founded in 1894, McLane Company serves convenience stores and mass merchants, in addition to chain restaurants. One of its biggest customers is Walmart, which once owned McLane and sold the company to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003.
McLane declined to identify customers which the driverless trucking will extend to in the future.
Autonomous freight trucking is expected to scale rapidly starting this year. Autonomous freight companies have converged on Texas as a primary deployment point, and it’s not just because of the pro-business, light regulatory touch for which the state is known. The Sun Belt traffics in a massive amount of freight, with routes stretching from Texas to Arizona and California. Lack of severe weather conditions like snow and ice also removes one variable for the autonomous technology to navigate.
Aurora Innovation recently started a 1,000-mile autonomous route between Fort Worth, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, notable for being beyond what a human trucker could handle without a stop. The company also announced earlier this week a deal with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to run a new 200-mile freight route between Dallas and Oklahoma City.
