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AUTONOMOUS HAULAGE
specialists located around the world, including experts in product definition, development, validation, deployment and support. Comprising four global locations, Liebherr Mining’ s AHS organisation ensures continuity in development and support across all time zones. This global capability is further complemented by in-country resources, including within Liebherr- Australia, where additional capability has been implemented to support the deployment, commissioning, and ongoing support of autonomous solutions for Australian customers.
“ To rapidly implement autonomous technologies, successful deployment depends on much more than just the product itself. Building the expertise, support capability and operational readiness required to scale these solutions globally has been a key focus,” concludes Liebherr.
Volvo’ s new autonomous ecosystem
Autona / earth is Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ commercial AHS offering for mines and quarries, which combines the autonomous Volvo FH truck for mining with Volvo’ s in-house developed virtual driver, infrastructure, operational support and maintenance needed to run autonomous transport. Delivered as Transport-asa-Service, Autona / earth integrates autonomous technology into customer’ s existing operations, with V. A. S. managing the technical complexity and regulatory compliance required for deployment.
The autonomous haulage system includes operation of autonomous vehicles driven by the Volvo Virtual Driver, fleet management and uptime as well as tailoring site infrastructure. Deep integration between the autonomy enabled truck, the Volvo Virtual Driver, and the Site Control system creates an integrated ecosystem for hauling material. The Virtual Driver ensures that the truck travels efficiently and safely through the demanding environment. The Site Control system provides real time fleet insights, status updates, and centralised oversight from the operations
IM Editorial Director Paul Moore with Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ Jonas Staaf( right) and Viktor Karefjard( left)
room, supporting predictable and efficient operations.
The new system builds on the initial experience and learnings at the Brønnøy Kalk limestone mining operation in Velfjord, Norway, where an autonomous Volvo FH truck fleet transports limestone on a five-kilometre stretch between the mine and the crusher and has been operating without a safety driver since 2023. The milestone of one million tonnes hauled autonomously was then announced in May 2025. All of the quarry production is today hauled autonomously over three shifts. The operation has nine fully autonomous FH trucks with trailers and it typically runs seven trucks each shift. As Autona / earth has been commercialised, production of the autonomous trucks has moved from Volvo’ s Concept Vehicle Lab in Gothenburg to a dedicated production line in Säffle.
At the Volvo Days 2026 event recently in Eskilstuna, IM Editorial Director Paul Moore had the chance to catch up with Jonas Staaf, Operations Manager Mining & Quarry at Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Viktor Karefjard, Systems Engineer at
Volvo Autonomous Solutions – to talk about the system, its functionality and its future potential.
Staaf said:“ It’ s using a lot of the same technology as is being used at Bronnoy Kalk, but Autona / earth is built from the ground up for mining. It is also future proofed, in terms of us being able to use it to drive multiple autonomous vehicles of different types, not just the Volvo FH.”
Karefjard adds:“ It is also built with safety in mind from the beginning. So we have a secondary redundant high integrity safety system built into the vehicles based on multiple systems – in fact eight extra safety functions. Vehicle awareness is one of them, with continuous data streams to handshake positions of all the vehicles in operation. And then we also have zoning sections, where we can restrict speeds to 10 km / h around areas where non-autonomous vehicles are positioned. These are just two examples. The safety functions are also layered with nominal systems like obstacle detection and meeting logic to further elevate safety.”
If this seems like overkill, for Volvo it’ s making sure that it can fulfil all the regulatory compliance requirements. The focus is Europe initially, and it has some of the most stringent safety rules in the world – so whatever meets the bar in Europe is likely to be able to satisfy safety rules anywhere.
As stated, the focus is going forward to have Autona / earth as the principal Volvo autonomy system on any Volvo equipment, whether that’ s ADTs, rigid trucks or the existing large Volvo FH heavy tipper trucks it is currently used on.
Staaf:“ All the vehicles in the group are potentially a target for Autona / earth, and we will add them one by one, in an order where it makes the most sense operationally and in terms of customer demand.” He added that Volvo has no plans currently to offer the system as an option for autonomous operation of non-Volvo haul units. Manually operated support machines eg loading and road maintenance, however, can be integrated regardless of brand.
From a tech point of view, Autona / earth uses a mix of cameras, IMU, LiDAR and
Continuous operations start here Real-time monitoring for slurry and tailings pipelines
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20 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2026