Waymo had been developing a specific autonomous truck platform to help revolutionize the trucking industry. In 2020, it began a collaboration with Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) to equip the Freightliner Cascadia truck with Level 4 autonomy. In a statement, Waymo says that, with its increased focus on Waymo Driver, the company will “push back the timeline on our commercial and operational efforts on trucking, as well as most of our technical development.” However, in that same statement, Waymo makes it clear that it will continue working with Daimler on an autonomous trucking platform.
By ramping up its efforts to make its Driver a mainstream, successful enterprise, Waymo is hoping it will then be in a better position by having both the resources and technical groundwork to do the same for autonomous trucking. “Advancing Waymo Driver capabilities,” Waymo states on its company blog, “especially on freeway, will directly translate to trucking and benefit its development efforts.”
Waymo Driver will also serve as an early guinea pig for government regulation when it comes to self-driving vehicles sharing public roads. Autonomous trucks not yet fully developed will be able to take advantage of whatever insights and advancements Waymo Driver vehicles make in regard to that extremely tricky regulatory landscape. “We continue to see a significant future commercial opportunity for our trucking solution alongside other commercial applications of the Waymo Driver,” states Waymo. Self-driving taxis aren’t killing autonomous trucking, but helping them come to fruition. It may just take a little longer for self-driving trucks to hit the road.
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