Caterpillar Surpasses 3 Billion Tonnes Hauled Autonomously

Caterpillar announced an additional 1 billion tonnes of material hauled by autonomous trucks using Cat MineStar Command for hauling, surpassing the 3 billion tonnes milestone. This achievement is joined by an expansion of the types of commodities hauled autonomously across a growing number of Cat mining truck class sizes, as well as other brands of mining equipment.

Caterpillar has Command autonomous haulage system (AHS) fleets operating across three continents – North America, South America and Australia – at 17 mine locations, operated by nine different customers. Commodities mined using the Cat Command include iron ore, oil sands, copper, coal and gold.

Command for hauling trucks now span class sizes from 190 to 360 tonnes (210 to 400 tons). The Cat line of Command models include the Cat 789D, 793D, 793F, 797F and the 297-tonne (327-ton) 794 AC with electric drive. Since the first autonomous Cat trucks were commissioned in 2013, these AHS models have traveled more than 110 million km (68.3 million miles), equivalent to a minimum-distance, straight-line roundtrip journey to Mars, with no lost-time injuries associated with automated truck operation.

Customers using Command for hauling report significant gains in productivity and truck utilization rates with lower costs per tonne. Customers have seen up to 30% higher productivity.