Autonomous Trucking Can Shrink Coast-to-Coast Delivery Times and Increase Fleet Productivity
The idea of a self-driving 80,000-pound truck barreling down the interstate once felt like science fiction. Now, it’s operating on real freight lanes in Texas. After years of hype and recalibration, autonomous trucking is entering its proving ground.
Persistent driver shortages and rising freight demand have forced the industry to look beyond incremental improvements. The American Trucking Associations continues to project a driver shortfall in the tens of thousands, a gap that could widen significantly by the end of the decade. At the same time, advances in AI, sensor fusion, and redundant safety systems are pushing autonomous platforms out of closed-course testing and into structured commercial deployments. The stakes are clear: safer highways, tighter delivery windows, and a fundamental shift in how long-haul freight networks are designed.
With autonomous trucks now operating on real freight lanes, how are companies ensuring they’re safe enough — and reliable enough — for widespread deployment?
On this episode of Hammer Down, host Mike Bush welcomes Sasko Cuklev, the Head of On-Road Solutions at Volvo Autonomous Solutions, for a future-focused discussion on the commercialization of autonomous trucking. The episode explores how Volvo is building not just an autonomous vehicle, but a full operational ecosystem—covering safety redundancies, terminal integration, customer collaboration, and live freight movement in Texas hub-to-hub lanes.
The conversation delves into…
- Why autonomous trucking requires a complete ecosystem—not just advanced sensors on a truck.
- What Volvo is learning from commercial freight operations between Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, and El Paso.
- How autonomy could cut coast-to-coast transit times from five days to two while increasing asset utilization.
Sasko Cuklev is the Head of On-Road Solutions at Volvo Autonomous Solutions, where he leads the full value chain of autonomous truck commercialization—from developing sales propositions to executing and operating customer deployments globally. With nearly three decades at Volvo across product development, systems engineering, and commercial leadership, he has played a central role in bringing autonomous, electrified, and connected vehicle solutions from concept to market. Known for his strengths in business development, innovation, and cross-functional leadership, Cuklev has built and led global teams focused on scaling autonomous transport solutions across mining, ports, logistics hubs, and highway freight applications.
Article written by MarketScale.
