Daimler Truck and Torc are celebrating three years of strong collaboration, having made significant progress in turning autonomous trucks from an idea into reality.

The companies have proven that Torc’s autonomous driving software can safely navigate on highways, surface streets, ramps and turns at controlled intersections.

At the start of the fourth year of partnership, a recently announced collaboration with US logistics provider Schneider represents a heightened focus on customer integration and industry collaboration.

As of 1 October 2022, Peter Vaughan Schmidt serves as the new CEO of Torc.

“Bringing a safe Level 4 autonomous truck to market is by no means a simple task,” Vaughan said.

“Over the past three years, we have benefited from the strong collaboration with Daimler Truck, bringing us significantly closer to our goal: developing a highly optimised self-driving truck that will meet the fleets’ needs for cost, safety, and performance.

“The teamwork shown has been outstanding so far and we’re entering our fourth year of partnership with a clear roadmap – focusing on one manufacturer and one initial use case in one geographic area.”

Torc is making significant steps towards commercialising SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks in the U.S. for long-haul hub-to-hub applications within this decade.

Recently, Torc and Schneider announced a joint pilot program. In addition to other strategic alliances, Schneider, a US-based multimodal provider of transportation and logistics services, will serve as an operational partner for Torc’s autonomous test fleet. The company will provide freight loads for Torc’s pilot operations and unique insights on truckload freight that will help guide the logistical roadmap for integrating with the fleet industry.

From a technology perspective, Torc recently started running its trucks with an updated set of sensors, computers, and additional integrations. This next step is set to improve testing efficiency as the company scales its autonomous fleet.