Dive Brief:
- Uber Freight and Torc Robotics are forming a strategic partnership to better understand autonomous truck deployments, the AV tech company announced last week.
- The information will be used “to inform Torc’s autonomous freight network design and expansion strategy,” the companies said.
- “In partnering with Torc, we’re able to provide a leader in this space with rich insights regarding how goods move, which in turn will result not only in more access to safer autonomous trucks, but ultimately build more reliable and efficient supply chains,” Lior Ron, Uber Freight founder and CEO, said in the news release.
Dive Insight:
Evaluating the best lanes and prioritizing rollouts, among other factors, will help Torc design and expand its autonomous trucking moves, according to the company.
Such analysis will help Torc, a Daimler Truck subsidiary, as it seeks to scale its operations by 2027, Torc CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt noted in the release.
To reach that point, Torc has also been preparing with multiple carriers. A pilot was announced with C.R. England in May and a similar arrangement was made with Schneider National last year.
The Uber Freight partnership builds upon a previous relationship: the company has been a member of the Torc Autonomous Advisory Council since it launched last year. The collaboration also includes other key transportation companies, including C.H. Robinson, Covenant Logistics, Daimler Truck North America and Ryder System.
Other autonomous tech competitors have also connected with carriers as trucking companies race to provide autonomous freight offerings. Meanwhile, businesses like Werner Enterprises have noted their approach to evaluating multiple autonomous trucking technologies.
