The driverless trucking revolution will start with a whimper this year and, if Aurora Innovation Inc. is successful, it will stay that way.

Aurora is still committed to begin operating autonomous 18-wheelers hauling cargo on a 200-mile run between its terminals near Dallas and Houston by the end of December or perhaps earlier, says Bloomberg.

While other companies have faded away or pushed back their timelines for long-haul operations, Aurora has powered through with a business plan that is well funded and relies on prominent partners both on the truck manufacturing side – Paccar Inc. and Volvo AB – and on the cargo service side, including Schneider National Inc. and Uber Freight.

Unlike the robotaxis that garnered a glaring media spotlight, autonomous trucks — which are guided by artificial intelligence software that is fed information on its surroundings from cameras, lidar and radar — won’t interact with the public unless there’s an accident. Aurora must be exceedingly cautious about how it rolls out its driverless technology because there’s little room for error at this early stage. That doesn’t mean there won’t be accidents. They just can’t be caused by an autonomous truck, because if one were responsible for an accident with serious injuries or fatalities, Aurora might not recover and the industry would be set back by years. Aurora knows this risk and is prepared to take it.