Daimler Trucks has signed a global strategic partnership with Waymo to deploy autonomous SAE L4 technology.
Initially, the collaboration between the two companies will materialize in a self-driving Freightliner Cascadia truck from Daimler Trucks North America featuring Waymo’s automated driver technology. The autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck, equipped with the Waymo Driver, will be available to customers in the U.S. in the coming years.
Waymo and Daimler Trucks said they would investigate expansion to other markets and brands in the near future.
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“As leader of our industry, Daimler Trucks is the pioneer of automated trucking. In recent years, we have achieved significant progress on our global roadmap to bringing series-produced highly automated trucks to the road,” said Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG and Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG. “With our strategic partnership with Waymo as the leader in autonomous driving, we are taking another important step towards that goal.”
Waymo’s CEO, John Krafcik, added: “We have the highest regard for Daimler’s engineering skills and broad global truck product portfolio, and so we look forward to scaling the Waymo Driver, together with our new partner, to improve road safety and logistics efficiency on the world’s roadways.”
Both Waymo and Daimler Trucks claim to share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers. To accomplish that, Waymo will bring over a decade of experience building the ‘World’s Most Experienced Driver’, having driven over 20 million miles on public roads across 25 U.S. cities and 15 billion miles in simulation.
Daimler Trucks North America, a U.S. market leader in commercial vehicle manufacturing, will provide its experience in developing state-of-the art Class 8 vehicles.
