Bot Auto sets ambitious 2025 schedule for driverless freight operations

Autonomous trucking company Bot Auto announced on Tuesday its plans to schedule continuous driverless commercial freight operations in 2025. The company’s schedule includes a minimum four-month pilot program of regular driverless runs between Houston and San Antonio, hauling cargo for customers.

In an interview with FreightWaves, Xiaodi Hou, founder and CEO of Bot Auto, said this initiative is a major step forward following Bot Auto’s previous successful hub-to-hub demonstration last October. The initiative departs from the industry’s earlier approach of one-off demonstrations, instead focusing on sustained, real-world driverless operations.

“The most predictable breakthroughs are the ones no one predicts,” said Hou. “2025 is going to be a big year. Look at what’s unfolding across our industry so far: Kodiak demonstrating driver-out capabilities in the Permian Basin, Aurora timing their Driver-Out pilot program, Fernride making strides in Europe and now Bot Auto setting our schedule.”

Hou emphasized that this convergence of timelines across multiple companies isn’t orchestrated but part of an organic breakthrough in autonomous trucking technology. Years of data collecting, model testing and real-world applications are converging.

Learning from past efforts while hauling real cargo

Bot Auto’s approach is informed by lessons learned from previous industry attempts at driverless operations, including TuSimple’s widely publicized 2021 demonstration. “Let me be clear – this driver-out program is not about showcasing technical capabilities. And, frankly, that was already demonstrated back in 2021 … . This pilot isn’t about proving what’s possible; it’s about uncovering what must be more efficient and economical,” said Hou.

Hou was previously CEO at TuSimple and emphasized the importance of transparency and sustained effort in this new initiative. “This time we’re going to do driver-out consecutively for at least four months,” he said.

The company is keen to distinguish this effort from past one-off demonstrations. “We don’t really see this as something that’s like another hype or another one-time demo or another PR stunt,” Hou explained. “What we really wanted to tell everyone is that, ‘Look this is a very organic thing that we must do internally,’ and in order to just go to the final point of commercialization, we need to first have a redundant system and then roll it out in the real world.”

Unlike other autonomous trucking competitors’ limited tests, Bot Auto’s 2025 pilot will involve hauling actual freight for paying customers. The company plans to operate its autonomous trucks on public highways without police escorts, simulating real-world conditions as closely as possible. This approach is designed to stress-test the technology and operations in a way that controlled demonstrations cannot.

“This time we’re going to haul real cargo, working with making real money out of it … doing it on a public highway without any police escorting … . Those are the important elements,” added Hou. Bot Auto’s goal with real customers and real cargo is to simulate as closely as possible what it foresees future driverless-out operations will be like at full speed.

Bot Auto also noted its commitment to safety, citing its proactive engagement with local authorities and emergency services. The company is employing statistical methods to validate safety, documenting internal processes and planning to open-source safety-related datasets to promote transparency.

“Since our successful hub-to-hub demonstration last October, our team has focused on building a reliable system with enhanced hardware and software redundancies,” Hou explained. “Safety is our top priority; we are working with the first responder community throughout Texas.”

Gradual ramp-up to regular operations

Bot Auto’s approach to driver-out operations will be gradual and iterative. Hou outlined the process: “Initially, the first driver-out launch will be a one-time thing. After that, we accumulate evidence and lessons learned, and we will try to launch our second driver-out as quickly as possible, maybe within the same month.”

The company aims to increase the frequency of these operations rapidly. “We will very soon get to the point where we’re feeling confident to launch driver-out every week and probably even multiple runs per week,” Hou explained. “That’s a learning process where we’re trying to ramp up our operation so that we are driver-out-ready in terms of internal operation.”

For the near term, the goal is to test and refine capabilities. Hou said. “This driver-out program is not about showcasing technical capabilities. What we’re conducting is a real-world simulation. This is about answering two fundamental questions that no virtual environment can resolve for us: Will our customers actually use our product? And can we make money from it?”

Challenges and cost considerations

Despite the optimism, Bot Auto acknowledges that challenges remain, particularly regarding operational costs. The company anticipates that initial driverless operations may see slightly higher costs than current driver-in runs due to setup requirements and unforeseen issues.

One topic that other autonomous truck makers have shied away from is the cost per mile compared to that of a traditional driver in a tractor. Compared to a regular trucking company whose overhead includes driver wages, autonomous trucking companies have higher back office costs in the form of engineers and software developers. To overcome these costs, Bot Auto believes in starting small and putting its assets to work.

Hou says a key factor in reducing costs will be maximizing the miles driven by each truck – a challenge given the frequent software updates and testing required for autonomous systems. “The biggest factor is … how many miles do you drive for your truck?” he noted. “People are trying to upgrade their software very often. … That all compromises the miles that they drive.”

Looking ahead

Bot Auto’s announcement aligns with a broader industry trend, as several major players in the autonomous trucking space target 2025 for driverless milestones. Companies like Aurora, Waymo and Torc have all indicated plans for commercial deployments or expanded testing in the same time frame.

“It seems that 2025 is going to be a magic year for driver-out,” Hou observed. “On one hand, you can say this is a pure coincidence, but I don’t really feel that it is. The ecosystem is at the cusp of breaking out for a major surprise. It’s not for one company; it’s really for the whole industry.”

While Bot Auto’s exact launch date remains flexible – “whenever we’re ready,” according to Hou – the company is confident in achieving major results within the year.

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