Daimler Truck delivers latest iteration of autonomous-ready truck platform to Torc
Daimler Truck North America has started delivering its latest flagship on-highway trucks to the autonomous testing fleet of Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler Truck. These trucks are based on the recently unveiled fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia, which was introduced last year. The autonomous-ready version of the new Freightliner flagship is equipped with redundant safety features, including braking and steering, and is intended for mass production.
“Delivering the latest iteration of our autonomous-ready vehicle platform, including production-intent autonomy hardware to Torc, marks a significant milestone for Daimler Truck towards series maturity and scaling,” Joanna Buttler, head of the autonomous technology group at Daimler Truck, said.
In addition to existing test routes in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, these trucks will also be tested in autonomous mode on a new lane in Texas between Laredo and Dallas, mainly on Interstate 35. There is significant freight volume moving between Laredo and Dallas, connecting major cities like San Antonio and Austin. Torc recently announced that it has signed a leasing agreement for an autonomous hub in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This hub will serve as the operational base for its autonomous testing efforts, customer freight pilots, and future commercialization.
See also: Torc partners with NVIDIA for autonomous truck AI
In 2024, Torc reached another milestone by completing driver-out test runs on a multi-lane test track in Texas. As a next step, Daimler Truck and Torc will further develop autonomous trucks to achieve the driver-out capability on public roads safely.
"Our strong collaboration with Daimler Truck represents six years of success in advancing the future of freight,” Peter Vaughan Schmidt, CEO of Torc, said. “Fully integrating Torc’s autonomous driver with Daimler Truck’s Freightliner Cascadia platform creates an industry-first, scalable, physical-AI autonomous trucking solution. This will unlock tremendous value for our customers by addressing key industry pain points and presents a clear opportunity to generate revenue and drive meaningful transformation across the industry.”
Daimler Truck and Torc aim to enter the U.S. market with SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks by 2027. In this application, the autonomous driving system assumes complete control of the dynamic driving task between two freight hubs.
