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| Waymo and Daimler are involved in developing autonomous semi-trailer trucks |
German company Daimler (Damler) and the commercial vehicles division of sister company Google Waymo announced on Tuesday that they will jointly develop an 8-stage autonomous semi-trailer by applying the Waymo automation system to the semi-trailer. Cargo ship Cascadia. .
The 8th series trucks include semi-trailers and other large commercial vehicles with a payload capacity of over 14,969 kg.
The partnership is accelerating the adoption of heavy electric vehicles, and a small number of high-performance teams are looking for business customers to reduce dependence on drivers.
`` Major suppliers of Category 8 truck equipment must spend time developing braking, steering and other technologies in order to bring them to market in a large number of fully automated systems, '' Waymo CEO John Kravsek said on the conference call. "These are long delays," he added.
The deal is seen as yet another win for Waymo as it seeks to attract more mature automakers. Waymo is also involved with US truckmaker PACCAR, whose brands include Peterbilt and Kenworth, but said that no formal development agreement has been reached with Bellevue in Washington.
John Stark, editor-in-chief of Stark Trucks and Non-Truck Services, said Daimler Trucks' North American brands include Freightliner, Western Star and rival PACCAR, which account for its share of the US truck market. Saab 8. More than 70%. Connect to the highway notebook.
Martin Daum, president of Daimler Trucks, said the deal with Waymo would not change the German company's previously announced plan to spend 500 million euros on developing self-driving trucks. Roger Nielsen, Head of Dom and Daimler Trucks North America, said Daimler's national development of autonomous truck drivers will continue.
Waymo was involved in the self-driving car industry for over ten years and joined Google before becoming a Google subsidiary. The team initially focused on autonomous taxis but founded Waymo Via in 2017 to build freight services using autonomous commercial vehicles (including heavy duty trucks).