Daimler Trucks and Torc collaborate with Luminar for Automated Trucking

Daimler Truck and Torc recently announced their strategic partnership to enable highly automated trucking, starting on highways.

The partnership will pursue a common goal of bringing series-produced highly automated trucks (SAE Level 4) to roads globally.  Both companies will also collaborate to pursue safety standards and operating practices for future policy advancements and safety enhancements as part of the joint program.

Head of Autonomous Technology Group at Daimler Trucks, Dr. Peter Vaughan Schmidt, said, "Luminar has pioneered a critical enabling technology for bringing automated vehicles to the road, and we’re excited to work closely with them to drive this technology forward. Their company has proven visionary in its focus and unique ability to enable long-range sensing and high-speed driving on the highway. Our common goal is to enable safe deployment of highly automated trucks and shape the future of the trucking and logistics industry at large."

Founder and CEO, Luminar, Austin Russell, said, "Our partnership with Daimler Trucks is spearheading the next era of commercial transportation, taking the multi-trillion global trucking and logistics industry head-on. The business case for autonomous trucking is incredibly strong, and now is seeing the first OEM program to bring it to the world."

The experts from Daimler Trucks, its U.S. subsidiary, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), and Torc Robotics, part of Daimler Trucks’ Autonomous Technology Group and experts Luminar will work on pursuing the said effort.

The teams will enhance lidar sensing, perception, and system-level performance for Daimler trucks moving at highway speeds.