Google’s Waymo Strikes Self-Driving Lorry Deal

Automated systems for self-driving lorries or trucks will be developed after Alphabet’s Waymo division said it will collaborate on their development with Daimler Trucks.

The development will see the commercial truck unit of Daimler work with Waymo, applying Waymo’s automated system to Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia for self-driving Class 8 semi trucks, with a carrying capacity exceeding 14,969 kg.

Earlier this month Waymo announced plans to expand its fully driverless ride offering and make it available to more people.

Daimler agreement

Waymo announced the deal in a blog post and press announcement here.

Both firms tout the ability of autonomous trucking to improve road safety and offer greater efficiency across the logistics industry.

Both parties envisage the development delivering “fully autonomous driving.”

“These fully autonomous trucks, equipped with the Waymo Driver, will be available to US customers in the coming years, and we’ll explore expansion into other geographies and brands in the near future,” said Waymo. “We look forward to working with Daimler to achieve our common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers.”

And Waymo feels the deal with combine Daimler’s engineering savvy with its own self-driving technology.

“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 worlds’ roadways,” said Waymo CEO John Krafcik.

“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. “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,” said Daum. “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.”