Waymo and Daimler: here are the fully self-driving trucks

Source: HW Upgrade added 28th Oct 2020

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Waymo and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, have announced a new global partnership for the supply of trucks that do not require the driver

of Rosario Grasso published , at 09: 41 in the Technology channel
Waymo Daimler

Daimler will integrate autonomous driving technology of Waymo , considered the pinnacle of scientific research in the sector, in its fleet of heavy semi-trailers Freightliner Cascadia . It is one of the fruits of the new agreement between the two companies that in the long term will attempt to establish a strategic and global partnership for the refinement of fully autonomous driving technology for trucks. Here the press release.

Completely autonomous driving between successes and setbacks

The two companies have so far worked independently on these technologies. Specifically, Waymo bought a small fleet of Peterbilt trucks , which he updated with sensors and autonomous driving software. It is currently conducting trials on these trucks in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

For its part, Daimler announced in 2015 that it had started working on autonomous driving, when he showed a working prototype called Freightliner Inspiration Truck . After a series of demonstrations, he finally showed the production version of this truck at CES in Las Vegas on 2019.

The development of fully autonomous driving technologies is therefore proceeding at full speed, even if there is no shortage of setbacks. Uber will face legal proceedings following the fatal accident caused by one of its self-driving vehicles.

“Daimler Trucks is developing a custom Cascadia Freightliner truck chassis with technology systems supplied by Waymo, with the aim of setting the industry standard in reliability and safety. This chassis will enable integration of Waymo Driver with its customized and scalable combination of hardware, software and computing “ reads an official communication issued by Daimler.

The final objective is to put into circulation trucks of Level 4 according to definition of the Society of Automotive Engineers ?? (SAE) or, limited to a specific area, capable of driving without a human driver behind the wheel . Waymo already has some Level 4 vehicles in operation, precisely in the Phoenix area, Arizona.

On the other hand, Waymo, which as known is a subsidiary of Google , has agreements of this nature with several other car manufacturers. Before Daimler, in fact, he initiated strategic synergy relationships with Nissan-Renault, Fiat Chrysler, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo . Daimler’s trucking division also has its own self-driving subsidiary, Torc Robotics .

In this regard, the reading on the evolutionary approach to the coach may be of interest