During a shift, a garbageman would manually drive the truck to the end of a block. Then he puts the truck in autonomous mode, and begins to walk back down the street. The garbage truck then autonomously backs down the street, stopping when it reaches a trash can. The truck stays stopped until the human hits a button on the side of the truck to indicate that the trash can was emptied. Then the garage truck resumes driving in reverse until it reaches the next trash can.

Why Volvo's self-driving garbage truck spends most of its time in reverse