In 2022, Torc Robotics – a provider of autonomous trucks for the middle mile - and Daimler Truck, who is the majority owner of Torc, heldfor journalists and financial analysts at a Torc facility in Albuquerque. At the time, some of Torc’s competitors were claiming that they would have fully autonomous trucks on the road as soon as 2023. Not Torc, their then CEO said it would be 2027 by the earliest.
In 2027, Torc/Daimler executives told the participants at the Albuquerque event that they were a conservative, German-owned company and the last thing they wanted to do was overpromise. Now, the CEO of Torc, Peter Schmidt, told me that the 2027 launch date looks valid. Mr. Schmidt said “What's good enough for a car on a highway isn't good enough for a truck.” There have been advances in many areas. “You have sensors with enough range.
However, Mr. Schmidt’s larger point was that getting a handful of AV trucks on the road was not good enough. The real question was how soon you could release autonomous trucks at scale. The 2027 date Torc is shooting for is a date they can believe they can also put trucks on the road at scale. To do this, the trucks don’t just have to be safe and reliable; they must be cost-efficient and easy to buy and service at dealerships.
Further, this lane includes San Antonio and Austin as potential destinations. “And just on that line,” Mr. Schmidt points out, you have 14,000 trucks moving northbound or southbound daily.” Thus, Torc can optimize its simultaneous location and mapping software to be highly reliable on this lane and, over time, develop high-quality navigation from lanes radiating out of San Antonio, Austin, or Dallas.
Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: clevelanddotcom - 🏆 301. / 63 Read more »
Source: PennLive - 🏆 463. / 53 Read more »
Source: NBCNewYork - 🏆 270. / 63 Read more »
Source: NBCNewsHealth - 🏆 707. / 51 Read more »