When AVI-SPL launched autonomous freight operations between Dallas and Houston, the technology solutions provider made a deliberate choice: announce what they had already accomplished, not what they hoped to do. According to Jeremy Codiroli, vice president of global supply chain at AVI-SPL, speaking to FreightWaves, “We think that a lot of people are, especially with AI, saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do [and] we hope to do this.’ And we wanted to really make a point of saying, ‘We did this. We are doing this. This is not a dream, this is real life.’” The commercial autonomous freight operations began the week of June 8, 2026, representing a future-focused, risk management solution for an industry grappling with driver headcount and retention issues.
The Autonomous Truck: Volvo and Aurora Partnership
AVI-SPL partnered with Volvo Autonomous Solutions, leveraging its self-driving rig with the Aurora Driver TMS platform to automate a 239-mile route between Dallas and Houston — no driver required. The Volvo VNL Autonomous serves as the hardware backbone, assembled at Volvo’s New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia — the largest Volvo Trucks facility in the world. According to Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ website, the truck features redundant systems across steering, braking, communication, computation, power management, energy storage, and vehicle motion management. While Level 4 automation does not legally mandate such redundancy, Volvo built it in from the start. The safety case centers on eliminating driver fatigue and distraction, two major contributors to highway accidents. Current operations include safety observers aboard the vehicles, who Codiroli described as “just kind of observing” to ensure everything is under control.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Route | Dallas–Houston, 239 miles |
| Start date | Week of June 8, 2026 |
| Truck | Volvo VNL Autonomous |
| Automation platform | Aurora Driver TMS |
| Automation level | Level 4 (with safety observers) |
| Cargo | Inbound: audio-visual electronics; Outbound: end-of-life electronics for recycling |
The Texas Corridor Strategy
The Dallas-Houston corridor operates as a true two-way commercial route. AVI-SPL takes what Codiroli describes as a “blended approach” to cargo utilization. On the inbound side, the autonomous trucks pick up products from major vendors in Dallas, transporting audio-visual electronics and equipment to the Houston market for customer installations. The return trips move end-of-life electronics from Houston back to Dallas, where recycling partners process materials and recover precious metals as part of AVI-SPL’s sustainability initiatives. “The whole point is to be sustainable, and this fits into that perfectly,” Codiroli told FreightWaves.
Internal Transformation and Coordination
Making autonomous trucking work required more than simply booking capacity on self-driving vehicles. AVI-SPL had to fundamentally restructure its internal planning processes. “You can’t just flick a switch and say you want to start using autonomous trucking,” Codiroli said. “It takes a lot of internal coordination, vendor coordination [and] customer coordination.” The company’s centralized global supply chain team, including dedicated directors for global logistics and global warehousing, analyzed how autonomous operations would ripple through their entire network. One major shift included consolidating shipments more aggressively to maximize the value of each truckload rather than shipping frequent smaller loads.
Eyes Ahead: Full Driverless Operations
AVI-SPL and its partners are targeting fully driverless operations in the first quarter of 2027. The current deployment with safety observers is a stepping stone toward that goal, demonstrating the technical and operational viability of the autonomous freight route. For Codiroli, this is about anticipating future challenges: “My supply chain team, we look out three to five years and say, what problems are we going to be trying to solve in three to five years, and can we try to solve them now?”
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