SAN FRANCISCO — In a move the company says launches the backbone for coast-to-coast coverage, Embark Trucks Inc. announced Tuesday, Nov. 1, that it has added four new autonomous trucking facilities in the Sunbelt states.
The Embark coverage map now includes nine transfer point sites in cities across the southern part of the U.S. New locations in Dallas and El Paso, Texas, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, Florida, join five existing sites in Los Angeles and Oakland, California, Phoenix, San Antonio and Houston.
The nine sites were strategically selected to facilitate the eventual automation of crucial freight corridors for Embark’s carrier partners. The expanded network Embark is positioned to serve the Sunbelt network covered 9.5 billion miles of annual freight in 2020, including Dallas to Houston, San Antonio to Houston, and Dallas to Atlanta — some of the highest-volume inter-city lanes in the nation.
According to Embark, 41% of shipment miles in the company’s expanded coverage map are along routes that are longer than drivers can complete in a single shift because of hours-of-service regulations. Once Embark’s technology is commercialized, the company estimates that 28% of U.S. shipping volume in the Sunbelt will be available for 24/7 autonomous transport operations by the company’s carrier partners.
“Our carrier partners have a meaningful portion of their loads concentrated on a select set of lanes between major markets in the Sunbelt,” said Alex Rodrigues, CEO of Embark. “We are delivering on one of our key 2022 objectives by activating these key markets as one cohesive network today, giving carrier partners the line of sight, they need to plan their deployment of Embark-equipped trucks, improving the ecosystem’s ability to rapidly scale in 2024.”
Currently, Embark’s coverage map is being used for multiple pilot projects with fleet partners. Through a long-standing partnership with Ryder, Embark is able to provide inspections and support services necessary to keep trucks moving in an efficient and safe manner.
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