The Pulse
Volvo and Waabi Start Warp Freight Runs Between Dallas and Houston
Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi have started customer freight operations for Warp on the Dallas–Houston corridor. The Volvo VNL Autonomous uses Waabi’s driving system, with an observer still seated behind the wheel.
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
“The value of autonomy grows when you can coordinate the freight around it.”
Daniel Sokolovsky, CEO of Warp
Warp’s freight enters customer operations
Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Waabi began their first customer operation together in Texas on October 5, moving freight for Warp along the Dallas–Houston corridor. The Volvo VNL Autonomous, running Waabi’s autonomous driving system, is transporting goods directly to third-party facilities. The companies describe the launch as the first customer operation in their partnership.
For Warp, the arrangement brings autonomous trucks into a network that handles both less-than-truckload (LTL) and full-truckload shipments. LTL freight combines goods from multiple customers and depends on coordinated pickup and delivery schedules. Volvo and Waabi say the trucks can move shipments directly between facilities, without the freight handoffs that can complicate those networks.
An observer remains in the driver’s seat
The launch does not mean the trucks are operating without a person on board. Volvo says an observer currently sits in the driver’s seat during autonomous hauls. The announcement does not specify when that arrangement might change, or give a timetable for driverless operation.
The vehicle is Volvo’s VNL Autonomous, designed for autonomous driving and integration with systems from partners such as Waabi. Volvo says it includes redundancies for six safety-critical systems. The companies’ Autona / freight service combines the truck and Waabi Driver with fleet and transport management, terminals, customer endpoints, operations and uptime support.
Why direct delivery matters for LTL
LTL carriers consolidate and distribute freight from multiple customers, often against closely timed schedules. Moving goods between facilities without an intermediate handoff could give a carrier like Warp another way to fit autonomous capacity into those schedules. The companies say their combined setup is intended to connect the vehicle’s operation with the network coordinating shipments, routes and timing.
Warp CEO Daniel Sokolovsky said the network aligns shipments, capacity and schedules so that improvements on one lane can benefit more of its freight operations. Volvo Autonomous Solutions President Nils Jaeger said the Dallas–Houston work will help the partners learn how to handle more complex customer operations and improve their transport system.
One Texas lane, with expansion still ahead
The Dallas–Houston route is the operating focus announced so far. Volvo and Waabi say they will use experience from the lane to prepare for additional routes, but did not name destinations or set dates for expansion. The release also gives no figures for loads moved, delivery performance or the number of trucks deployed in the new operation.
For now, the concrete change is narrower: Warp’s customers’ freight is moving between facilities on this corridor in a Volvo autonomous truck equipped with Waabi’s system, while an observer remains in the cab. That makes the launch a customer-facing freight service, but not yet a driverless one.