at the moment: They can operate without a driver behind the wheel but are confined to a finite number of pre-determined roads or a single geographic area. In the case of robotaxis this usually means certain parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.
For one thing, there are 50 jurisdictions in the US, each with its own set of laws regarding autonomous vehicle testing, some of them contradictory and most of them quite restrictive. Secondly, this autonomous utopia would still employ humans, albeit sitting in a remote room somewhere and monitoring a fleet of a dozen or so trucks simultaneously, handling their scheduling, fueling, and other tasks.
Like other Level 4 truck developers, Torc Robotics aims to make hub-to-hub driverless trucking a reality by the end of this decade, but it will still take a few years to get there, especially where tractor trailers are concerned. This means Torc is focused first on routes between warehouses a few hours from each other, rather than cross-country trucking that could take several days. But the technology being developed would eventually involve both types of routes.
The upcoming freight pilot program with Schneider, however, will be conducted stateside, with Torc also partnering with Penske Truck Leasing for maintenance service. Bit by bit, the pieces are coming together for extensive testing in real-world traffic and with real freight, with Torc and others believing that driverless trucks could be a regular sight on our roads in just a few years.
They already have them - they're called 'trains'...