Volvo group unit Volvo Autonomous Solutions says it has hauled more than three million tonnes of mine and quarry material autonomously in the past three years.
The business, established in 2020 to commercialise Volvo’s transport autonomy technology, has deployed at customer sites in Europe. The Bronnoy Kalk quarry in Norway and Boliden Garpenberg mine in Sweden are two pivotal sites, with the former passing 1Mt hauled autonomously last year.
VAS started working with Swedish mining and metals company Boliden in 2023. As well as Garpenberg it developed and tested and an initial underground autonomous truck system at Boliden’s Kristineberg mine in northern Sweden.
“Reaching three million tonnes hauled autonomously is an important milestone that demonstrates the maturity of our autonomous transport solution and the value it delivers in customer operations,” said VAS chief technology officer Ingo Sturmer.
“This achievement reflects years of close collaboration between the Volvo Autonomous Solutions team and our customers to develop, deploy and scale autonomous hauling in real-world environments.”
VAS is providing mining and quarrying customers with its “Autona / earth” transport-as-a-service offering. It includes autonomy-enabled trucks and the company’s “Volvo Virtual Driver” infrastructure, operations, uptime services and fleet management, “enabling customers to implement autonomy without handling the technical complexities and without major equipment investment”.
It is making autonomous trucks at the Volvo group’s Saffle facility in Sweden.
