Torc Validates Fully Driverless Truck on Test Track
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Self-driving truck developer Torc Robotics announced that it has begun validating its autonomous driving technology at speeds up to 65 mph with no one on board the vehicle in a closed-course environment.
Since May, the independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck has been conducting fully driverless truck tests on a multi-lane test track in Texas, the company revealed Oct. 29.
The unmanned product validation marks another step toward the company’s goal of commercializing fully autonomous trucks by 2027.
“It’s a huge milestone in our journey to launch our product,” said CJ King, Torc’s chief technology officer. “It’s allowing us to demonstrate that we have a product. We have the hardware. We have the software. We have the operational support.”
(Torc Robotics)
During the closed-course testing, Torc’s unmanned truck performed test runs while sharing the track with human-driven lead and chase vehicles, he said.
Much like several other autonomous truck developers, Torc also has been using its self-driving trucks to haul freight on public highways but with a safety driver still behind the wheel as a backup.
Moving forward, Torc intends to continue validating its technology, expanding its capabilities and addressing “edge cases” — very rare scenarios the truck might encounter on the road — with the goal of finalizing a “feature complete” self-driving product by the end of 2025, King said.
From there, the company plans to begin operating with no driver aboard on public highways in Texas starting in 2026 to pave the way for a commercial launch in 2027.
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“In 2026, you’ll see the Torc virtual driver running without a human in the truck, interacting with the public,” King said.
Torc said its ongoing closed-course testing of its fully autonomous truck technology is not merely a demonstration but ongoing validation of the company’s artificial intelligence, system architecture, production-intent hardware and safety engineering focused on achieving a scalable commercial rollout.
“We observed impressive reliability in our repeated driverless runs, which leveraged Torc’s unparalleled embedded and integrated platform on Daimler Truck’s Freightliner Cascadia,” Torc CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt said in the announcement. “We look forward to unlocking the full value of autonomous driving software for customers who prioritize safety, operations costs, ease of use and reliability.”
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