“On a sunny morning in December, an 18-wheeler will pull into a truck depot in Palmer, Texas, just south of Dallas. The driver will step out of the cab and help transfer his trailer to a second rig outfitted with powerful sensors.

This second truck will head south on Interstate 45 toward Houston. It will move cautiously, mostly cruising in the right lane at 65 mph despite the 75 mph speed limit…

Trucks travel the 200 miles between Dallas and Houston all the time. But there will be something special about the middle leg of this trip: There will be no one in the vehicle.

A startup called Aurora has spent seven years—and hundreds of millions of dollars—preparing for this driverless trip, which it hopes to complete before the end of the year.”

From Ars Technica.