An autonomous trucking company laid out plans for launching a driverless commercial freight lane in Texas this year.

On March 4, Houston-headquartered Bot Auto issued a statement promising “driver-out” freight operations to launch in 2025 with “continuous autonomous trucking operations between Houston and San Antonio.”

Bot Auto plans to run the driver-out Houston to San Antonio pilot program lane for at least four months, “hauling real cargo for commercial shippers.”

Bot Auto’s founder and CEO Dr. Xiaodi Hou was formerly the founder and CEO of autonomous trucking tech company TuSimple. TuSimple wound down U.S. operations in late 2023 after the FBI, SEC, and Committee on Foreign Investment opened investigations into the company’s alleged ties to China-based startup Hydron Inc. TuSimple later rebranded to CreateAI, an AI-powered animation and video game tech company.

“The most predictable breakthroughs are the ones no one predicts,” said Dr. 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. To casual observers, this might seem like another wave of hype, but such synchronized predictions across players isn’t orchestrated—it’s the most organic forecast of genuine breakthrough. The hardware is ready. The software is ready. And this new dawn will illuminate our industry in 2025. We, Bot Auto, are committed to being in the first row.”

“Since our successful hub-to-hub demonstration last October, our team has focused on building a reliable system with enhanced hardware and software redundancies,” Dr. Hou added. “Safety is our top priority, we are working with the first responder community throughout Texas. We’re taking a proactive approach, employing statistical methods to validate safety, documenting our internal processes, and planning to open-source safety-related datasets to promote transparency.” Over the past months, Bot Auto has already actively engaged with local authorities and emergency services, working wholeheartedly to ensure safe operations on public roads.”

“We’re capturing essential operational intelligence here,” Dr. Hou continued. “A precise catalog of operational challenges that emerge with fully driver-out trucks. This pilot isn’t about proving what’s possible; it’s about uncovering what must be more efficient and economical. We’ll implement the operational optimizations until our costs drop below human driver levels. That’s the inflection point where autonomous trucking transitions from a technology promise to a profitable business. After all, at Bot Auto, getting things done isn’t just what we do—it’s who we are.”