COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOWO). Self-driving trucks are already moving cargo on Ohio roads, but the state’s first fully driverless deployments remain confined to private or semi-private property as companies push for technology that could eventually put truckers out of the driver’s seat.

A small fleet of autonomous cars and tractor-trailers has been testing on Ohio roads for years. This summer, some vehicles began operating without a human driver present — although only on limited roads within a corporate park.

The trucks use artificial intelligence along with cameras and lidar sensors to navigate. The test vehicles are equipped with purple lights that operators say identify them as autonomous to law enforcement without broadly advertising their status to other drivers.

For now, Ohio drivers are unlikely to encounter a completely driverless tractor-trailer on the highway.

State law currently allows fully self-driving vehicles on public roads only for testing and research. Most autonomous vehicle deployments in Ohio still have a human sitting behind the wheel, ready to take control if the system encounters a situation it cannot handle.

A broader rollout of driverless cars and trucks would require a change in state law.

Ease Logistics, a Dublin-based freight company, is among the Ohio companies pushing the technology forward. The company has spent years testing autonomous trucking and has used a system known as “platooning,” in which one truck follows another while software analyzes its own camera and lidar data and mimics the lead vehicle’s movements.

The underlying platooning technology comes from California-based Kratos Defense.

In 2022, automated and platooning vehicles covered thousands of miles on rural and winding roads in Vinton and Athens counties. A state report based on company data found the technology performed better in trucks than cars. The cars required more frequent interventions from human drivers and had more difficulty predicting what other motorists would do.

More recently, Ease trucks accumulated about 3,000 miles in platooning mode on I-70 with a human backup driver present, according to data submitted to DriveOhio this summer.

The company reported several “excessive braking events,” although Ease and DriveOhio had not completed their analysis of all the data at the time of the report. No crashes occurred during the I-70 platooning operation.

Ease Chief Administrative Officer Abbi Fallia said she believes the technology could already operate without the second driver.

“The Kratos technology could be ready. It is ready. It could be automated,” Fallia said. “We could automate that and take the second driver out of the cab. So we’re there. It’s more of a regulation thing than a capability thing.”

The company is also operating trucks that actually drive themselves at its warehouses in Marysville.

Those vehicles, using technology from Swedish company Einride, are smaller and more box-shaped than conventional tractor-trailers. They travel at about 15 mph on a short route along quasi-private roads within a corporate park.

They still carry real cargo.

Fallia wants to expand that operation onto a nearby road with a 45-mph speed limit and eventually onto U.S. 33.

The technology is being tested against a uniquely Midwestern challenge: weather.

The autonomous trucking industry is further along in warmer parts of the Southwest, but Ease wants its systems to learn how to handle conditions such as heavy rain and hail.

Company data also indicates platooning can improve fuel efficiency.

Fallia said the technology eventually could change how truckers work rather than simply eliminate drivers. In one possible model, two drivers could operate two trucks together, with one vehicle following another in platooning mode while the driver of the following truck sleeps or handles administrative work.

But autonomous trucking also presents an obvious threat to some trucking jobs.

Self-driving systems do not need sleep, meals or wages, and they can operate overnight when traffic is lighter.

The Teamsters union, which represents truck drivers, has opposed efforts to expand driverless trucking in other states. The union sued in California last month over a state law allowing self-driving trucks on public roads.

“Self-driving trucks are an existential threat to the livelihoods of Teamsters members in California who deliver food and other essentials and are a crucial economic engine for the state,” the union said when announcing the lawsuit.

There are still significant technological hurdles in Ohio.

Breanna Badanes, a spokesperson for DriveOhio, said some autonomous systems have struggled with construction zones, where signs and road configurations are not always standardized in ways cameras can easily interpret.

Spotty cellular or satellite signals can also cause platooning systems to disengage.

“We’re still a ways off from being able to remove that second driver from the driver’s seat,” Badanes said. “The technology is getting there, but it’s not there yet.”

Other companies are testing autonomous vehicles in Ohio as well.

California-based Kodiak AI conducted a Level 4 autonomy demonstration for DriveOhio this spring. Level 4 means the vehicle can operate without a driver under the conditions for which the system is designed.

The demonstration included navigating construction zones, merging onto highways, passing slower vehicles, yielding to disabled vehicles and responding to unexpected pedestrians crossing the road.

Kodiak spokesman Pete Bigelow said the company expects its technology to eventually expand well beyond testing.

“We do envision our driverless technology scaling broadly in the years ahead,” Bigelow said. “We believe it will bring improved safety to roads across the United States and keep freight moving reliably and efficiently.”

Ohio is also attracting attention from autonomous passenger-vehicle companies.

There are currently no autonomous passenger vehicles operating on Ohio roads without drivers, but Waymo, which operates robotaxis in several Southwestern states, recently told Cincinnati media outlets that it has begun high-definition mapping of some Cincinnati-area roadways.

The larger question remains whether autonomous trucks can actually be safer than trucks operated by people.

DriveOhio says no crashes have been reported in any of its autonomous vehicle deployments.

A final report on Ease’s Southeast Ohio testing documented six “excess braking” events, while Fallia estimated a similar number during the I-70 deployment.

Supporters of autonomous driving argue computers could eliminate some human mistakes, including distraction and falling asleep behind the wheel.

But David Kidd, vice president for vehicle research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said it is still too early to determine whether autonomous trucks are safer than human-driven trucks.

Early research involving robotaxis has shown promising results. An IIHS analysis using self-reported Waymo data found the company’s autonomous vehicles crashed at a substantially lower rate than human drivers in the same area.

Kidd cautioned that results involving passenger cars cannot simply be transferred to heavy trucks.

Truck drivers face regulated working hours and higher training requirements, while tractor-trailers can cause substantially more damage than passenger vehicles in a crash at the same speed.

For autonomous trucks to become commonplace, Kidd said, companies will have to convince both regulators and the public that the technology is safe.

“It may feel like the wild, wild west when it comes to regulation, the types of information these companies have to report, or the extent to which they have to prove themselves,” Kidd said. “But you have to remember that these companies, if they don’t earn the trust of the public or demonstrate safe driving behavior or a safety-first attitude, then they’re not going to survive.”

For now, Ohio’s autonomous trucks remain a test of what may be possible rather than a replacement for the state’s human truck drivers. The technology is already moving cargo without anyone behind the wheel — just not yet on the highways most Ohio motorists use every day.