Daimler and Waymo partner-up to push forward on self-driving trucks
Partnership aims to develop autonomous SAE Level 4 trucks
Daimler Trucks and Waymo have signed a strategic global partnership to deploy autonomous SAE Level 4 technology. SAE L4 is one step below completely removing humans from the driving process and is the point at which driver interaction is required throughout the journey, although intervention can be enacted.
Their initial effort will combine Waymo's automated driver technology with a unique version of Daimler's Freightliner Cascadia, to enable autonomous driving.
Daimler is pursuing this partnership in order to make use of Waymo’s experiments in self driving, which thus far have encompassed more than 20 million miles driven on public roads across 25 US cities and 15 billion miles in simulation.
Daimler Trucks said that it expects the autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck, equipped with the Waymo Driver to be made available to customers in the coming years, with initial deliveries beginning in the US.
“The combination of increased road freight volumes and the need and vision of fleet operators for highly automated trucks, is what fuels our relentless pursuit of innovation,” said Roger Nielsen, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG, President and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America LLC. “We are pushing engineering solutions that strive above all to increase safety and help our customers improve business efficiencies. Based on our collaboration with Waymo, we will be in the unique position to be able to provide our fleet customers with a choice among the best solutions for their individual requirements.”