Gothenburg – September 24, 2026 -- Volvo Autonomous Solutions (V.A.S.) has hauled more than 3 million tonnes of material autonomously across its European mining and quarrying customer sites, marking a scale-up milestone for driverless heavy hauling technology.
Brønnøy Kalk reaches 1 million autonomous tonnes on steep Norwegian route
At Brønnøy Kalk's quarry in Norway, where autonomous hauling began in 2023, V.A.S. deploys nine autonomous trucks on a five-kilometer route linking the quarry to a crusher through long tunnels with steep inclines. The site crossed the 1-million-tonne autonomous hauling mark in 2025.
Boliden uses autonomous trucks for dam reinforcement at Garpenberg mine
In Sweden, Boliden's Garpenberg mine has used autonomous trucks to move material from a quarry to a dynamic unloading area as part of a dam reinforcement project.
CTO Ingo Stürmer cites years of deployment work behind the milestone
"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 Ingo Stürmer, CTO at V.A.S. He added the achievement reflects years of collaboration between the V.A.S. team and customers to develop, deploy and scale autonomous hauling in real-world environments.
Autona / earth bundles trucks, virtual driver and fleet management as a service
The hauling is delivered through Volvo's transport-as-a-service offering for confined areas, Autona / earth, which combines autonomy-enabled trucks, the Volvo Virtual Driver, infrastructure, operations, uptime services and fleet management. The model lets customers implement autonomous transport without managing the underlying technology or making major equipment investments, with stated benefits including optimized transport flows, continuous operation and removal of personnel from hazardous zones.
Trucks built at Volvo's Säffle facility to support faster customer rollouts
The autonomous trucks used in these operations are manufactured at Volvo Group's Säffle facility, a setup V.A.S. says enables fast, consistent delivery and positions the unit to meet rising demand for autonomous hauling among mining and quarrying operators.