Waymo has added the first trucking company to a fast-growing roster of manufacturers it will work with to develop driverless vehicles.
Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving unit is partnering with Daimler AG’s truck division to put Waymo’s technology to use in the Freightliner Cascadias, the companies announced in a statement Tuesday. The two said their jointly developed fully autonomous trucks will be available to U.S. customers in the coming years, without giving a more specific timeline.
Daimler Trucks already had a partnership with Torc Robotics, a U.S. startup it acquired a minority stake in last year, to speed up its development of autonomous trucks. The Freightliner Cascadia is the German manufacturer’s flagship model in North America, and the company unveiled a new version in early 2019 that it said would be able to brake, accelerate and steer at all speeds on its own.