There’s been a flurry of partnerships and other corporate deals in recent months in the nascent driverless trucking industry, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic casts doubt on the long-term viability of using autonomous vehicles for ride-sharing.
Waymo & Daimler:
Daimler integrates Waymo’s autonomous driving technology, widely considered to be among the best in the world, into its fleet of heavy-duty Freightliner Cascadia semi-trailer trucks. The way is a subsidiary of Google’s Alphabet…
Also, Daimler has no exclusive on Waymo technology. Other OEM’s such as Jaguar Land Rover, Chrysler, Volvo, and Nissan-Renault are having also agreements. But Daimler in turn also has its own self-driving subsidiary, Torc Robotics…
Image Source:media.daimler
So there is a whole shake up of the industry that leads to new alliances extending the automotive industries more and more into software entrepreneurs.
They all have to comply with the “SAE L4” specification which refers to the SAE Levels that have become the global standard code for self-driving. L4 vehicles may operate without any driver but only in a specific geographic area and on specified roadways and under good weather.
Check these newcomers that are still widely unknown and are working toward a fully driverless truck: