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Our first market-available generation of self-driving trucks will exclusively drive on highway roads and interstates. Our Torc trucks are targeting middle mile journeys, or any route over 250 miles in length. We’ve identified this as the scalable, commercially viable choice for our technology.
The first application of the autonomous technology will be long-haul, the area with the greatest capacity need. We’re working on what we call a “hub-to-hub” solution.
Simply, the autonomous truck will transport goods in the middle mile, operating autonomously between two hubs or transfer terminals near highways. The automated driving system will be capable of navigating highways and surface streets without human intervention between the hubs. Initially, the first and last mile routes, within cities and towns, will still be manually driven.
Daimler and Torc are currently producing an autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia, complete with redundant chassis, steering system, braking system, low voltage power net, network communications, and more.
Our braking system is designed with fall-back safety mechanisms in place. Featuring multiple brake controllers and a pneumatic backup, this critical piece of equipment and its redundant design ensures that the truck is able to perform its behaviors.
Our redundant steering system has several servo motors, which allow lateral control in case of an electronic or hydraulic failure.
Our low voltage power net not only generates the higher power necessary for our controllers, but provides continuous power to all control modules.
And lastly, our secondary communication network provides constant communication between key systems, which are further protected by state-of-the-art cybersecurity requirements.
Torc Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck NA, headed west for the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Conference and Expo at the beginning of May 2023. The four-day conference focused on the trends and technologies transforming commercial transportation, and as such, autonomous trucking took a front seat. Attendees and exhibitors chose from over 30 sessions and toured 300 booths, including Torc at booth 6957.
Nick Elder, Torc Director of Corporate Strategy, spoke twice at the event on Wednesday afternoon, May 3. First, he held a Tech Talk on the Expo stage, elaborating on the relationship between Torc and DTNA, and the Torc mission to arrive at Level 4, driver out, autonomous operation in the market.
“One of the natural questions is always what’s the timeline look like for this. We’re looking at these advanced technologies and autonomy is an incredibly challenging proposition,” said Nick. “And we’ve been clear since the very early days: We’re going release a product when it is safe to do so, and that means rigorous validation. And that that is going to take time to accomplish.”
“So what is Torc’s vision? When we think about the pillars that we want stand on, as we look to bring automation into the Class 8 space, first and foremost, bringing value to customers, in a safe way. We want to create a safer solution that will ultimately bring value to freight networks, to carriers, and to the end customer, the shippers,” Nick continued. “We believe that to do that it’s absolutely imperative that you collaborate with partners. So that means partnerships with OEMs like Daimler, it means partnerships with carriers as well to make sure we’re developing the right product and that it can integrate into the freight ecosystem.”
Additionally, Daimler Truck NA president and CEO and Torc Board Member John O’Leary opened up the Expo as a keynote speaker. DTNA was also a presenting sponsor of ACT Expo 2023 and hosted booth 6440.
One of the reasons why we appreciate the relationship we have with Torc is because you bring us together, and we can have these conversation. We can tackle some but not all of the challenges together, because we’re all going to deal with the different ‘what if’ scenarios.
Matt McLelland, VP of Sustainability and Innovation, Covenant
Later on Wednesday, Nick took part in a breakout session entitled “Autonomous – Developments in Piloting and Scaling Commercial Autonomous Vehicles.” Moderated by Chris King, Senior Vice President, eMobility, Siemens, the other panelists included Michael Wiesinger, Vice President of Commercialization, Kodiak Robotics; Mike Plasencia, Managing Director of RyderVentures and New Product Strategy, Ryder System, Inc.; and Shawn Kerrigan, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder, Plus.
Speaking as part of the panel, Nick elaborated on one commonality between Torc and the other participants in regard to autonomous vehicle operational design domains. “When we look at these level designation for autonomy, I think we’re all going to be focused on that L4 space. So it’s going to have a defined domain. And that really references the type of infrastructure you can handle, what type of roads you can handle, the environmental conditions that you can handle,” said Nick.
“If a truck is dispatched from a location and during its journey, midway in transit, it starts to snow or rain — beyond the capabilities of that system — it’s going to be critical that the system is capable of understanding that it’s now going outside of the domain in which it was designed to operate. And it will still need to find itself in a safe state,” he continued. “It’s going to have to know that it is beyond those limits and make itself safe.”
Torc looks forward to returning to ACT Expo in 2024. For more information about Torc and the presentations shared at the event, contact press@torc.ai.
The level of engagement and commitment, not to mention the record-setting attendance, at the ACT Expo this week makes it exceedingly clear what direction the inertia of the industry is pointed. We continue to get critical feedback on the ultimate vision of a sustainable, scalable autonomous trucking solution.
Walter Grigg, Director of Product Strategy, Torc Robotics
We want to create a safer solution that will ultimately bring value to freight networks, to carriers, and to the end customer, the shippers. We believe that to do that it’s absolutely imperative that you collaborate with partners. So that means partnerships with OEMs like Daimler, it means partnerships with carriers as well to make sure we’re developing the right product and that it can integrate into the freight ecosystem.
