Daimler, Waymo Partner On Autonomous Trucks

Daimler Trucks and Waymo have signed a broad, global, strategic partnership to deploy autonomous SAE L4 technology. No financial details were provided.

The initial efforts of the two companies will be to combine Waymo’s automated driver technology with a unique version of Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia, to enable autonomous driving.

Waymo brings over a decade of experience with more than 20 million miles driven on public roads across 25 U.S. cities and 15 billion miles in simulation. Daimler Trucks North America, Daimler Trucks’ U.S. subsidiary, parent company of the Freightliner brand and the U.S. market leader in commercial vehicle manufacturing, provides its experience in developing Class 8 vehicles.

Both Waymo and Daimler Trucks said they share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers. The autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck, equipped with the Waymo Driver system, will be available to customers in the U.S. in the coming years. Waymo and Daimler Trucks said they will investigate expansion to other markets and brands in the near future.

“As leader of our industry, Daimler Trucks is the pioneer of automated trucking,” said Martin Daum, chairman of the board of management of Daimler Truck AG and member of the board of management of Daimler AG. “In recent years, we have achieved significant progress on our global roadmap to bringing series-produced highly automated trucks to the road.

“With our strategic partnership with Waymo as the leader in autonomous driving, we are taking another important step towards that goal. This partnership complements Daimler Trucks’ dual strategy approach, of working with two strong partners to deliver autonomous L4 solutions that are seamlessly integrated with our best-in-class trucks, to our customers.”