The first driverless semis have started running regular longhaul routes in the U.S.

By Alexandra Skores CNN Washington DC Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes making roundtrips between Dallas and Houston On Thursday autonomous trucking firm Aurora declared it launched commercial facility in Texas under its first customers Uber Freight and Hirschbach Motor Lines which delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight Both companies conducted test runs with Aurora including safety drivers to monitor the self-driving tool dubbed Aurora Driver Aurora s new commercial function will no longer have safety drivers RELATED Robotaxi pioneer Waymo expanding to South Bay including most of of San Jose and gets SFO foothold We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving tool safely fleetly and broadly reported Chris Urmson CEO and co-founder of Aurora in a release on Thursday Now we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking function on community roads Related Articles Tesla is in worse shape than you think Mahan Liccardo lend help as Waymo applies to bring robotaxis to San Jose Waymo robotaxis make up of Uber rides in Austin statistics shows Self-driving startup Nuro raises million at lower valuation Waymo plans DC robotaxi operation debut as US plans new standards The trucks are equipped with computers and sensors that can see the length of over four football fields In four years of practice hauls the trucks tool has delivered over customer loads As of Thursday the company s self-driving tech has completed over miles without a human in the truck Aurora is starting with a single self-driving truck and plans to add more by the end of Driverless trucks are officially running their first regular long-haul routes Courtesy Aurora via CNN Newsource Self-driving hardware continued to garner attention after over a decade of hype especially from auto companies like Tesla GM and others that have poured billions into the tech Companies in the area of autonomous trucking or driving tend to use states like Texas and California as their testing grounds for the hardware California-based Gatik does short-haul deliveries for Fortune retailers like Walmart Another California tech firm Kodiak Robotics delivers freight daily for customers across the South but with safety drivers Waymo a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet had an autonomous trucking arm but dismantled it in to focus on its self-driving ride-hailing services However consumers and transportation leaders have raised alarms on the safety record of autonomous vehicles Aurora distributed its own safety analysis this year detailing how its instrument works Unions that represent truck drivers are usuallyopposed to the driverless instrument because of the threat ofjob loss and concerns over safety Earlier this year the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rejected a petition from autonomous driving companies Waymo and Aurora seeking to replace traditional warning devices used when a truck broke down with cab-mounted beacons The Travel Workers Union argued the petition would hinder safety The-CNN-Wire Cable News Organization Inc a Warner Bros Discovery Company All rights reserved