IN Brief:
- ISEE AI is targeting serial production of autonomous yard trucks in 2027.
- The company operates more than 20 autonomous vehicles at customer sites.
- Private yards provide a controlled route for freight automation deployment.
ISEE AI is targeting serial production of autonomous yard trucks in 2027 after finalising its Generation 7 autonomy kit and securing a manufacturing partnership with terminal tractor OEM TICO.
The company has shifted its focus from public-road autonomy to private-yard operations, where controlled access, lower speeds, and defined workflows create a more practical deployment environment. It currently operates more than 20 autonomous vehicles at customer sites, completing thousands of yard moves each week.
Private yards offer clearer operating boundaries than public roads. Routes can be mapped, dock doors are known, traffic is restricted, and vehicles move at relatively low speeds. That allows autonomous systems to use a fail-safe, fail-stop model rather than the more demanding fail-operational architecture required for highway operations.
Yard automation remains technically demanding. Autonomous terminal tractors must identify trailers, couple and uncouple safely, reverse into dock doors, avoid workers and equipment, and handle variation in trailer weights, axle positions, and yard layouts. Reversing a trailer is particularly complex because the trailer behaves as an unstable system when pushed, requiring constant adjustment.
ISEE AI’s system uses machine learning to understand trailer behaviour during manoeuvres and adjust movement before parking. The company says its technology achieves one-stop parking in more than 98% of moves. In a busy yard, removing repeated repositioning can reduce lost minutes across hundreds of daily trailer movements.
Auto-coupling is another major challenge. ISEE AI has developed several approaches, including a robotic arm that connects air and electric lines to trailer glad hands without permanent trailer modification, a cassette-style trailer modification developed with Electrans, and its own magnetic trailer adapter, which can be attached temporarily and removed before a trailer leaves the yard.
Yard operations are a logical target for automation because the work is repetitive, safety-critical, and often constrained by labour availability. Dock schedules depend on trailers being moved at the right time, in the right sequence, and to the right door. Missed moves, wrong-door placement, driver shortages, shift changes, and communication errors all create knock-on delays for warehouse and transport operations.
Automation is already moving into adjacent high-risk logistics environments. Safer forklift operations in container loading shows how automated workflows can reduce vehicle interaction in confined loading areas. Yard automation applies the same principle outside the dock, removing some repetitive movements from human-controlled vehicles and creating more predictable trailer flows.
The technology also sits beside developments in automated storage and warehouse connectivity. Jungheinrich and HMS’s PowerCube connectivity work highlights how reliable wireless design becomes central as shuttle systems scale into larger deployments. Autonomous yards will need the same discipline around connectivity, safety validation, integration, and maintenance support.
Private-yard autonomy may develop faster than public-road autonomous trucking because it solves a more contained problem. A yard has a fixed perimeter, known users, repeatable tasks, and a manageable speed profile. Those conditions allow operators to measure performance against specific outcomes: trailer dwell time, dock utilisation, move accuracy, labour allocation, damage rates, and safety incidents.
Scaling will still require careful implementation. Autonomous trucks must be integrated with yard management systems, warehouse schedules, gate processes, transport management platforms, carrier appointments, and manual exception workflows. Workforce consultation and safety governance will also shape deployment, especially at large facilities with mixed traffic and established yard procedures.
ISEE AI’s route to serial production with TICO gives the company a path from controlled deployments to larger fleet orders. The strongest use cases will be sites where yard processes are already disciplined, trailer status is visible, and dock activity is tightly managed. In those environments, autonomous yard trucks can become a practical capacity layer rather than an isolated technology trial.
