Iveco, Plus to collaborate on autonomous trucks

Iveco, a brand of CNH Industrial N.V., has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Plus, a global autonomous trucking company, to jointly develop autonomous trucks.

Under the terms of the non-binding MOU, Iveco and Plus will integrate Iveco’s latest- generation S-Way heavy-duty truck with the PlusDrive full-stack autonomous driving system. The cooperation will also explore using Iveco’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine system to power the jointly developed autonomous trucks.

The partnership combines Iveco’s expertise in heavy-duty truck development, manufacturing, and sales with Plus’s autonomous driving technology in order to bring a safe, fuel efficient and scalable self-driving truck to market quickly, across Europe and other geographies, said Iveco.

Iveco is working on ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) together with selected companies and the cooperation with Plus is expected to further accelerate the development of automation in heavy trucks. The company said Plus is the ideal partner for this process thanks to its technology, its drive to innovate and the fact that it already has established relationships with the same key component suppliers as Iveco.

Teams of both companies will work closely to develop and deploy autonomous trucks, including one that is powered by natural gas, with the ultimate goal to create a more sustainable future.

Plus, headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, is applying full-stack self-driving technology to trucks today to enable large scale autonomous commercial transport.