The National Highway System. Source: Mark Sarmiento, U.S. Department of Transportation, ArcGIS Online
On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act. It authorized the creation of a network that today carries nearly 25% of U.S. automotive traffic and moves trillions of dollars of freight annually. Quarterhill Inc. is among the companies now working to digitize that transport infrastructure.
Seventy years after the 41,000-mi. (65,983.1 km) interstate network was launched, 72.2 million Americans will travel around Independence Day this week, according to AAA. Concerns include aging roads and bridges, securing and managing freight, and improving safety as fleets of autonomous vehicles (AVs) grow.
Founded in 1992 as a wireless technology company, Quarterhill said it is a leader in the intelligent transportation system (ITS) industry, advancing mobility through smart infrastructure systems to reduce congestion, improve roadway safety, and create more sustainable travel.
The Toronto-based company said its AI platforms process billions of transactions, perform inspections on millions of commercial vehicles, and enable transportation agencies worldwide to optimize travel in thousands of lanes of traffic.
Tyler Haichert, director of ITS product at Quarterhill, replied to the following questions from The Robot Report:
How are fleets of autonomous trucks and other vehicles spreading across the U.S., and how does that compare with other nations?
Haichert: The U.S. is becoming one of the most active environments for autonomous freight, in large part because companies have been able to test and deploy the technology in defined commercial corridors while policymakers continue developing the regulatory framework. That has helped accelerate real-world testing and commercial deployment.
Companies such as Kodiak and Aurora are already running commercial corridors, and that’s the result of an ecosystem that allowed technology to prove itself before enforcing rules that might have constrained it.
Other regions, including parts of Europe, have taken a “regulate first, deploy second” approach. There’s logic to that model, but it comes at a cost. The U.S. is gaining operational experience and data at a pace that’s hard to replicate when technology is waiting on policy direction.
Self-driving vehicles pose transport infrastructure challenges
What are some of the potential benefits of self-driving vehicles, and what problems still need to be addressed?
Haichert: If we think about trains, they operate on dedicated infrastructure, predictable routes and schedules, with minimal constraint on public resources. Autonomous freight has the potential to bring similar efficiency to the highway networks we already have.
In an ideal scenario, autonomy allows for longer operational windows, reduced pressure from chronic driver shortages, and fuel savings through platooning, which creates significant upside.
As with many technologies in the early stages of adoption, the automation of trucking and freight transport does raise important infrastructure questions as well. As the technology becomes more widespread, we need to think carefully about which parties are overseeing factors like highway design, traffic management, and the funding of these projects.
Freight operators will capture significant cost savings, but public agencies will be left managing increased roadway wear, congestion, and the complexity of new networks. Autonomous technology will continue to rapidly scale, and we need to ensure our infrastructure has the capacity and supporting systems to advance with it.
What are some of the unique challenges of managing autonomous transport?
Haichert: One of the hardest problems is from infrastructure perspective and ensuring we can support everything around the autonomous vehicle. It’s enormously complex to manage a network where autonomous trucks, platooning convoys, and conventional driver-led vehicles are all sharing the same lanes, in real time, across changing weather and various roadway conditions.
Commercial vehicles also carry a higher level of public safety responsibility simply because of their size and weight, compared with consumer-sized driverless cars. The implications of an 80,000-lb. [36,287.3 kg] autonomous freight truck are significantly different from an on-demand robotaxis.
As this technology expands, agencies will need reliable ways to communicate changing roadway conditions and enforce compliance requirements to make sure these vehicles can operate seamlessly and safely alongside the rest of the road-using public.
AV developers must answer safety, social questions
How is the regulatory environment keeping up with transport technology?
Haichert: In the U.S., technology is advancing faster than regulation in many areas of autonomous transportation. That’s not unusual for emerging technology, and as I alluded to earlier, regulators have generally allowed the industry to gather real operational data before implanting standards. That has helped produce a faster, more informed deployment cycle than a top-down regulatory model would have allowed.
As autonomous freight scales from pilots to permanent commercial operations, the pressure from standardized safety requirements will increase. Going forward, the challenge will be finding the right balance to allow for both innovation and consistent safety standards to instill public confidence in the technology.
How are AV developers responding to pushback from some jurisdictions and organized labor?
Haichert: Much of the discussion has understandably centered around workforce impact, though it’s worth remembering that the trucking industry continues to face longstanding driver shortages in many parts of the country. The American Trucking Association projects a shortfall of 82,000 drivers in 2026.
The industry has a supply problem that autonomous technology likely won’t solve immediately, but I believe there will continue to be strong demand for drivers, especially for regional and last-mile delivery.
Based on my experience, effective autonomy will successfully complement the existing freight ecosystem rather than replace it. Cultivating public and industry trust will depend on proving not only that it’s safe, but also that it can address real-world operational challenges while continuing to support the broader transportation workforce.
Submit your session idea for the 2026 RoboBusinessQuarterhill works with transport agencies
What are some examples of Quarterhill’s work with autonomous freight providers and other parties to modernize interstate transportation and logistics?
Haichert: Quarterhill’s primary customers are public transportation agencies, which have the responsibility of keeping the roadway network safe and operation efficiently, regardless of what types of vehicles are using it. As autonomous freight becomes more common, those agencies will increasingly need infrastructure and traffic management systems that can manage the complexity of supporting both conventional and autonomous commercial vehicles.
Our work today includes virtual weigh-station screening, traffic monitoring, and enforcement systems that operate in alignment with CVSA commercial vehicle safety standards. Those systems are already helping agencies manage the classification, compliance, and operational visibility of commercial fleets at scale.
As autonomous freight becomes a larger part of that mix, the same infrastructure needs to evolve to be capable of identifying and processing AVs, communicating dynamic roadway conditions, and giving agencies the data they need to enforce standards on vehicles that may have no driver to pull over. That’s the problem we’re actively building toward with our agency partners.
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