Daimler Trucks and Waymo have signed a broad, global, strategic partnership to deploy autonomous SAE L4 technology. Their initial effort will combine Waymo’s automated driver technology with a unique version of Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia to enable autonomous driving.

The partnership is Daimler’s second in this area. In March 2019, Daimler Trucks purchased a majority stake in Torc Robotics, another company developing Level 4 self-driving technology, to commercialize SAE L4 trucks on US roads. (Earlier post.)

Waymo brings more than a decade of experience, having driven more than 20 million miles on public roads across 25 US cities and 15 billion miles in simulation. Daimler Trucks North America, Daimler Trucks’ US subsidiary, parent company of the Freightliner brand and the U.S. market leader in commercial vehicle manufacturing, provides its experience in developing state-of-the art Class 8 vehicles.

Both Waymo and Daimler Trucks share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers. The autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck, equipped with the Waymo Driver, will be available to customers in the US in the coming years. Waymo and Daimler Trucks will investigate expansion to other markets and brands in the near future.

In recent years, we have achieved significant progress on our global roadmap to bringing series-produced highly automated trucks to the road. With our strategic partnership with Waymo as the leader in autonomous driving, we are taking another important step towards that goal. This partnership complements Daimler Trucks’ dual strategy approach, of working with two strong partners to deliver autonomous L4 solutions that are seamlessly integrated with our best-in class trucks, to our customers.

—Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG and Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG