Autonomous trucking company NuPort says it has completed forestry sector testing with FPInnovations and other partners in Quebec.

It says forestry is one of the industry sectors that has the most to gain from autonomous trucking, since transportation accounts for a large portion of fiber costs in forestry operations. Routes are often unpaved and labor availability, safety and efficiency are persistent challenges.

NuPort partnered with FPInnovations and two forestry companies – Domtar and Chantiers Chibougamau – in December 2025 to demonstrate the capabilities of autonomous trucking for the sector.

“In Canada especially, FPInnovation’s member companies’ forestry operations take place in some of the most unpredictable weather conditions in the world, with snow, sleet, ice, and moisture constantly changing the driving environment,” said Raghavender Sahdev, CEO of NuPort. “Demonstrating autonomy here is about answering the hardest questions around safety, reliability, and performance when conditions are far from ideal.”

NuPort said its perception systems have to cope with limited visual structures thanks to unpaved surfaces, snow, moisture and debris that reduced contrast and obscured road edges.

Tree cover, terrain variation and remote locations added to the challenges related to GPS accuracy, the company said, and gravel roads lacked the mapped features typically found in structured environments.

At Chantiers Chibougamau, NuPort said it showcased its autonomous trucking platform across these constraints through SAE Level 2 testing in bobtail, empty trailer, and loaded trailer configurations. It reported its system demonstrated stable speed control and predictable trajectory execution in real-world winter conditions.

It was also able to handle simulations involving degraded GPS, loss of cellular connectivity and sensor faults. The test covered more than 1,200 km (746 miles) under real-world conditions with temperatures as low as -40 C (-40 F).

NuPort said it will take those learnings to establish a foundation for how autonomous trucking can be deployed within forestry operations under real-world constraints. It plans to expand validation across additional forest operational scenarios and tackle longer haul distances with variable payloads.

“Looking forward, continued collaboration with industry partners such as FPInnovations and Chantiers Chibougamau will be critical to shaping how autonomy is adopted within forestry logistics,” NuPort said in an announcement. “By validating autonomy in challenging, public road networks today, NuPort is helping define a practical path toward safer, more resilient, and more efficient transportation solutions for the forestry industry tomorrow.”