Torc Supports GO Virginia–Funded Effort to Align Autonomous Vehicle Workforce Training Across the Commonwealth

by Torc | Mar 10, 2026 | News, Featured, Integration

Torc and Dock 2 Door VTTI team in front of Torc trucks on the Smart Road

Torc contributes industry expertise to VTTI-led Dock to Door Pathways Program focused on AV inspection and credentialed career pathways

BLACKSBURG, Va – March 10, 2026 – Torc, a pioneer in commercializing self-driving class 8 trucks, today announced its participation in a newly awarded GO Virginia Region 2 planning grant led by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)’s Dock to Door Coalition (D2D). The one-year grant will support planning efforts to align university and community college curriculum with evolving workforce needs across the autonomous vehicle manufacturing ecosystem.

The initiative is designed to lay the groundwork for the future D2D Pathways Program, which would streamline training programs across Virginia to prepare students and mid-career professionals for in-demand roles — including inspection and safety-critical positions supporting autonomous commercial motor vehicles. The autonomous manufacturing sector is the second largest in Virginia’s Region 2, thus, opportunities to specialize and upskill are critical to staying on pace with industry growth.

As an industry partner, Torc is contributing subject matter expertise to help identify core competencies, training recommendations, and credentialing opportunities required for inspectors and technicians working with autonomous trucks. This includes aligning curriculum concepts with nationally recognized inspection and safety frameworks (such as CVSA) and defining career lattices that connect entry-level credentials to mid- and advanced-level roles.

“The autonomous trucking industry is rapidly advancing, and we recognize a strong need for trained experts in the field,” said Anita Kim, director, state government and regulatory affairs at Torc Robotics. “By working alongside VTTI and the Dock to Door Coalition, we’re helping ensure that education and training pathways reflect the skills needed to support safe autonomous trucking operations — and that those pathways lead to sustainable jobs here in Virginia.”

The planning grant brings together industry, academic, nonprofit and public-sector stakeholders through the Dock to Door Coalition, a network of more than 90 partners spanning the supply chain. The effort will focus on mapping existing programs, identifying gaps, and recommending pathways that support both autonomous and electric vehicle manufacturing and operations.

“This work is about translating industry demand into actionable training pathways,” said Kaitlyn Bedwell, project lead and a team leader within the supply chain, transportation, automation and resource sustainability team at VTTI. “As new policies and license requirements emerge, working alongside Torc, which is on the frontline of industry innovations, will help our students and future engineers stay ahead of the curve.”

The GO Virginia Region 2 planning grant began on November 15, 2025, and will run for one year. Findings from the effort are expected to inform a future implementation phase focused on deploying scalable, industry-aligned workforce training programs across Virginia.

About Torc

Torc, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving vehicle industry, Torc has over 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc offers a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. In addition to its Blacksburg headquarters and engineering offices in Ann Arbor, MI, and Montreal, Torc has a fleet operations facility in Dallas-Fort Worth, to support the company’s productization and commercialization efforts. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

About the Dock-to-Door Coalition

The Dock to Door (D2D) Coalition, led by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, is a 90+ member partnership uniting industry, government, higher education, and non-profits to build a fully connected, resilient, and sustainable freight transportation system. The coalition accelerates next-generation supply chain innovation through four core program areas that improve safety, visibility, efficiency, and workforce readiness as it relates to advancing multimodal automation, from long-haul trucking to last-mile delivery—while expanding benefits to rural and suburban regions through strengthening of regional talent pipelines.

Two Torc trucks on the Smart Road in Blacksburg Virginia

Torc Robotics Expands Autonomous Truck Testing to Michigan Public Roads

by Torc | Feb 24, 2026 | News, Featured

Torc autonomous truck drives in front of University of Michigan stadium

Public-road testing in Michigan marks next step in Torc’s growth, technology development and path to commercialization

BLACKSBURG, Va. – February 24, 2026 – Torc, a pioneer in self-driving vehicle technology, today announced the expansion of its autonomous truck testing operations to public roads in Michigan using the latest-generation Daimler Truck autonomous chassis based on the industry-leading Freightliner Cascadia. Building on Torc’s established testing operations in Dallas-Fort Worth and Blacksburg, the expansion in Michigan marks a significant step in Torc’s continued growth in the region as the company deepens its engineering presence and broadens testing capabilities.

Testing its autonomous trucks in the greater Ann Arbor, Michigan area represents the natural next step in Torc’s strategy to bring this technology safely and reliably to the long-haul trucking industry. After establishing the Ann Arbor engineering office last year, the development work taking place there is now “on the road” in Michigan and contributing to Torc’s next generation of software. This enables the validation of autonomous performance across new environments and seasonal conditions for both hardware and software performance using real-world data.

“Validating our hardware and software together on public roads is a critical step in the marathon toward autonomous trucking commercialization,” said Felix Heide, Head of Artificial Intelligence at Torc. “Each new hardware generation allows us to further validate our AI inference models, strengthen our simulation accuracy, and ensure our autonomous system performs safely and reliably in real-world conditions.”

“Torc’s continued growth in Michigan highlights the importance of strong public-private partnerships in advancing next-generation mobility,” said Quentin L. Messer, Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and chair of the Michigan Strategic Fund. “Through collaboration with companies like Torc, Michigan is driving innovation, building a skilled workforce, and reinforcing its position as a global leader in autonomous and connected vehicle technologies.”

The Michigan testing expansion builds on Torc’s continued partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Ann Arbor SPARK, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing safety and innovation in the freight industry through autonomous trucking.

Torc is currently hiring in Michigan and remotely for software engineering, artificial intelligence, and machine learning roles to support ongoing testing and development efforts. For more information about Torc’s technology, open positions, or progress toward commercializing autonomous trucking, visit torc.ai.

About Torc

Torc is an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving vehicle revolution, Torc has over 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc offers a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. Headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, Torc also operates an engineering office in Montreal, a fleet operations facility in DFW to support productization and commercialization efforts and a facility in Ann Arbor to leverage the region’s strong autonomous and automotive talent base. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

Torc autonomous truck on Michigan highway

Close up of Torc autonomous truck on Michigan highway

Proven, Not Promised: Earning Our Place on the Road

by Alex Mesa | Dec 10, 2025 | Safety

At Torc, safety isn’t just a priority; it’s the foundation that supports every aspect of how we develop, deploy, and operate our autonomous trucking technology. As we work to transform commercial freight transportation, we’ve built an approach that establishes trust with regulators, our customers, and the public, that Torc’s autonomous solutions are safe to deploy and in the communities we operate in.

Torc’s Chief Safety Officer, Steve Kenner, and his team have developed a safety framework organized around three pillars that guide our safety philosophy. Individually, they keep different parts of our whole team accountable to specific segments, such as the engineering of our trucks, how they’re operated, and how safety is fostered within Torc. Together, they ensure we’re not just building a safe autonomous truck but operating it responsibly.

Build it Safe

The foundation of our safety approach starts with the truck itself. We’ve engineered multiple layers of redundancy into our hardware as well as our autonomous driving systems, embedded on the industry-leading Freightliner Cascadia platform, to ensure safe operation even when individual components fail.

Redundancy at Every Level

Our redundancy approach encompasses all critical systems. Our safety philosophy spans all aspects of our technology, from our system architecture to our hardware and software design, allowing us to be resilient to failures. This is accomplished through redundancies in our safety-critical systems, such as braking and steering.

For instance, if an individual sensor fails, we can achieve an MRC (minimal risk condition) by pulling off the road at a safe location. The redundancies we’ve built in allow us to continue operating safely.

Intelligent Fault Management

Torc has developed a sophisticated fault-management system that detects faults, including safety-relevant faults, and matches them to appropriate responses. Our priority hierarchy is clear: first and foremost, our trucks must maintain safe operations and refrain from creating a hazard for other road users. If we can’t reach our destination, we focus on degraded operation that gets us to a safe location, rather than just pulling to the roadside. Think truck stop or exit ramp, not highway shoulder. However, in safety-critical situations, our autonomous truck will pull over to the side of the road as soon as it is safe to do so.

Addressing Edge Cases

Edge cases (problems or situations that occur at the extreme limits of a system’s operating parameters) are inevitable in the real world. Whether it’s a billboard featuring a giant stop sign that could be misidentified by sensors, or a pickup truck loaded with Christmas trees, our autonomous driving system needs to handle a multitude of scenarios not previously encountered. Torc is tackling this challenge through a collaboration with Stanford University, where we’ve partnered to make the future of freight safer for all. By sharing our data and perception information with our partners, we’re able to compare datasets and identify differences between them. For instance, let’s say our simulation training data includes lots of pickups loaded with wooden planks, but we don’t have any of those same “real world” vehicles in our on-road perception data. These kinds of insights allow us to identify areas where we should develop a more complete perception dataset.

We also leverage publicly available crash databases from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and state agencies to analyze crashes on our planned routes (as well as roads outside of our routes) but within our ODD or operational design domain, which the set of specific conditions and locations under which an automated system can/is allowed to operate. This allows us to replay and recreate these scenes during software testing, using AI generated scenarios in our simulation environment. We can test and train the software’s responses to both real-world crashes and even more challenging simulated situations.

The Role of Simulation and Testing

Let’s dive deeper into Torc’s simulation environment and our testing and training. Torc firmly believes that you cannot real-world-road-test our way to safety. Even millions of miles on the road wouldn’t be enough to encounter all potential edge cases. Therefore, we use a balanced combination of (1) real-world data and (2) generated AI simulated scenarios to test our software, and then (3) retraining the system as a whole. We use safety metrics, such as hard breaking, hard swerves, and total time to collision that allow us to measure performance in both environments and establish parity between simulation and on-road results.

Our comprehensive simulation libraries provide scalable, cost-effective testing capabilities, but we still need sufficient on-road miles to validate our software against real-world performance.

Operate it Safe

Technology is only part of the safety equation. With autonomous trucking, Torc is improving how freight operations work and realize efficiencies, prompting new approaches to maintenance, inspection, and human oversight:

Evolving Operational Standards. Our autonomous technology requires updated maintenance and inspection protocols compared to traditional trucking operations, such as sensor calibration and increased frequency. We’re developing the training programs and procedures that will equip fleet operators and technicians with the skills they need to work with autonomous vehicles.
Human Oversight Philosophy. We’re establishing clear guidelines as to when remote assistance should assist a vehicle when it encounters situations that may require human oversight. This balance ensures that human judgment enhances rather than undermines our autonomous capabilities.
Consistent Standards Everywhere. Safety standards must be maintained across different routes, terminals, and regulatory environments. We’re building systems that adapt to varying environments while maintaining our core safety principles.

Trust It To Be Safe

We recognize that the biggest challenge we face now isn’t necessarily technical; Torc has already overcome that. It’s earning public trust. We’re committed to establishing and maintaining trust and safety from our drivers, regulators, partners, and our community at large.

Transparency and Engagement

As Torc CSO Steve Kenner puts it, “We’re all in charge of public safety.” We maintain transparency with regulators and elected officials who are responsible for public safety, engaging with stakeholders at city, county, state, and federal levels. We want people to understand what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and when we’re doing it. This includes comprehensive first responder interaction plans and training programs, ensuring that emergency personnel understand how to interact safely with our vehicles.

Independent Validation

We understand that industry self-assessment isn’t enough. That’s why we’re working with third parties like Stanford’s Center for AI Safety and Edge Case Research; we’re actively seeking out neutral third-party studies and evaluations of our work to ensure that we’ve created a complete picture of our safety case.

Industry Collaboration

Torc believes that rising tides lift all boats, so, while we compete on many aspects of our business, we should always collaborate on safety. We participate in industry consortiums and safety organizations, such as the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium, sharing knowledge that advances autonomous vehicle safety across the entire sector, while respecting antitrust and intellectual property requirements.

How It All Comes Together: Governance and Risk Management

These three pillars of Torc’s safety approach don’t operate in isolation; they’re connected through a comprehensive governance structure centered on risk management. We’ve established a flexible safety governance framework where safety decisions can be promptly reviewed by a cross-functional team of experts. These committees report up to the Torc safety board, which CSO Steve Kenner leads.

Safety risk management is pervasive throughout our approach. We systematically identify safety hazards and develop mitigation strategies across all our operations, whether we’re selecting hardware, planning operations, or making any other business decisions. Our safety risk management framework provides the structure for how we assess and evaluate these safety risks.

Earning Our Place on the Road

As autonomous trucking technology continues to mature and regulatory frameworks evolve, our three-pillar safety philosophy provides a comprehensive approach to the complex challenges of deploying self-driving vehicles at scale. We’re not just working to put autonomous trucks on the highway – we’re working to earn their place there through demonstrated safety, reliability, and responsible operation.

The transformation of commercial transportation will succeed only if we can prove that autonomous vehicles operate safely alongside human drivers while delivering the efficiency and economic benefits they promise. Our systematic approach to safety, governance, and public engagement is designed to make that vision a reality.

At Torc, safety isn’t just what we do; it’s who we are. Every decision we make, every system we build, and every mile we drive is guided by our commitment to operating safely and earning the trust of everyone who shares the road with us.

Daimler Truck and Torc Robotics Select Innoviz Technologies as LiDAR Partner for Series Production of Level 4 Autonomous Trucks

by Torc | Dec 2, 2025 | Featured, News

Daimler Truck North America and Torc Robotics Select Innoviz Technologies as LiDAR Partner for Series Production of Level 4 Autonomous Trucks

This press release has been released jointly with Torc, Daimler Truck North America, and Innoviz.

InnovizTwo High-Performance Short-Range LiDAR to enable SAE Level 4 autonomous capabilities for commercial trucks deployment

TEL AVIV, Israel: PORTLAND, Ore. and BLACKSBURG, Va. – December 2, 2025 – Innoviz Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INVZ) (the “Company” or “Innoviz”), a leading Tier-1 direct supplier of high-performance, automotive-grade LiDAR sensor platforms and complementary software stack, announced today that Daimler Truck, one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers and Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler Truck, have selected Innoviz as its Short-Range LiDAR supplier for series production SAE Level 4 autonomous Class 8 semi-trucks.

This announcement follows Innoviz’s previous disclosure that a major commercial vehicle OEM had selected the Company for future series production of Level 4 autonomous trucks, now revealed to be Daimler Truck. Innoviz will supply its InnovizTwo Short-Range LiDAR sensors to support Daimler Truck and Torc Robotics’ autonomous commercial vehicle program. As part of a joint development effort, the companies will collaborate to advance the sensors for commercial trucking applications.

Daimler Truck and Torc Robotics plan to integrate Innoviz’s LiDAR technology into the autonomous Freightliner Cascadia in combination with Torc’s virtual driver as one of several key components enabling Level 4 autonomous trucking.The partnership positions Innoviz’s technology as a critical component in Daimler Truck’s strategy to bring autonomous trucks to market, with deployment planned across highway and regional routes in North America to help fleet operators improve operational efficiency, and enhance road safety.

“This partnership with Daimler Truck and Torc represents a significant validation of our technology and our position in the autonomous trucking market,” said Omer Keilaf, CEO and Founder of Innoviz. “The trucking industry demands LiDAR sensors that can perform reliably in the most challenging conditions while delivering the precision and range needed for safe autonomous operation. Our InnovizTwo sensors have demonstrated compliance with these stringent requirements, and we’re excited to support Daimler Truck and Torc in bringing this transformative technology to market.”

“Selecting the right LiDAR partner is fundamental to our autonomous trucking strategy,” said Rakesh Aneja, Head of Corporate Development at Daimler Truck North America. “Innoviz’s proven track record in automotive-grade LiDAR sensors makes them an ideal partner as we advance toward series production. This collaboration brings us closer to delivering autonomous trucks that will reshape the logistics industry.”

Mike Avitabile, Head of Engineering at Torc, adds: “Integrating Innoviz’s technology into our self-driving vehicle software solution enhances our system’s ability to detect, classify, and track objects in real time across diverse road and weather conditions. Innoviz’s sensors deliver the consistency and durability required for commercial operation, while supporting the redundancy needed for safe Level 4 autonomy.”
Daimler Truck and Torc rely on a combination of three complementary sensor technologies – state-of-the-art LiDAR, radar, and camera systems – to precisely detect the vehicle’s surroundings under all conditions. This multi-layered approach enhances road safety both on highways and in challenging maneuvers such as turning at intersections or navigating ramps. LiDAR technology uses laser pulses to generate high-resolution 3D maps of the environment. For maximum safety, autonomous trucks require both long-range LiDAR systems to identify objects far ahead and short-range sensors to capture detailed close-proximity data in complex driving situations. While Daimler Truck and Torc have already selected their supplier for long-range LiDAR, Innoviz has now been chosen as the partner for short-range LiDAR.

About Daimler Truck

Daimler Truck Holding AG (“Daimler Truck”) is one of the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, with over 40 main locations and more than 100,000 employees globally. Daimler Truck North America LLC (DTNA), a subsidiary of Daimler Truck and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is the largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks in North America and a leading provider of innovative products, services, and technologies for the commercial transportation industry. DTNA designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets medium- and heavy-duty trucks, school buses, vehicle chassis, and related technologies and components under the Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp, and Detroit brands. DTNA is dedicated to delivering exceptional value and support to its customers—helping them keep the world moving. For more information, visit northamerica.daimlertruck.com or daimlertruck.com.

About Torc

Torc, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving vehicle revolution, Torc has over 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc offers a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. Torc has offices in Montreal, Ann Arbor, Blacksburg, and the Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) area. Headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, Torc also operates an engineering office in Montreal, a fleet operations facility in DFW to support productization and commercialization efforts, and a facility in Ann Arbor to leverage the region’s strong autonomous and automotive talent base. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

About Innoviz

Innoviz is a global leader in LiDAR technology, serving as a Tier-1 supplier to the world’s leading automotive manufacturers and working towards a future with safe autonomous vehicles on the world’s roads. Innoviz’s LiDAR and perception software “see” better than a human driver and reduce the possibility of error, meeting the automotive industry’s strictest expectations for performance and safety. Operating across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Innoviz has been selected by internationally recognized premium car brands for use in consumer vehicles as well as by other commercial and industrial leaders for a wide range of use cases. For more information, visit innoviz.tech.

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Forward Looking Statements

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the services offered by Innoviz, the anticipated technological capability of Innoviz’s products, the markets in which Innoviz operates, Innoviz’s projected future operational and financial results. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Many factors could cause actual future events, and in the case of our forward-looking revenues, actual orders or actual payments, to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this announcement including but not limited to, the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, the ability to convert design wins into definitive orders and the magnitude of such orders, the ability to identify and realize additional opportunities, potential changes and developments in the highly competitive LiDAR technology and related industries, and our expectations regarding the impact of the evolving conflict in Israel to our ongoing operations. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider such risk and the other risks and uncertainties described in Innoviz’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 12, 2025 and in other documents filed by Innoviz from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. There can be no assurances that the Company will enter into definitive agreements, orders or receive payments with respect to the program selection referenced in this announcement. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Innoviz assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Innoviz gives no assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

Scaling Physical AI for Autonomous Trucking Today: Torc’s First-to-Production Embedded Hardware

by Kiley Thompson, Ethan Proffitt | Nov 17, 2025 | Technology

In the first article about Torc’s AV 3.0 technology, we covered the different system components of AV 3.0: the virtual driver software, and the advanced data loop and generative AI simulation infrastructure to train and test it. AV 3.0 is the robust technology needed to safely and efficiently create an autonomous trucking product.

However, AV 3.0 is more than just world class autonomous software. We’re running this physical AI product on high-volume embedded compute in production-ready vehicles today.

We’re the first in the industry to deploy our system on a production-intent platform — Daimler Truck’s autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia. By running our AV 3.0 system on this autonomy-specific redundant chassis, Torc is setting the industry standard in the autonomous trucking space and leading the way to commercially scalable and viable freight solutions.

A graphic describing the three parts of Torc's AV 3.0

The Embedded Hardware Engine of AV 3.0

Freight movement presents unique challenges that require unique trucking solutions. Systems like long range perception, long-distance-actor prediction, and extended behavior planning are non-negotiable. Add in that the physical compute platform needs to hold up to running millions of miles in harsh long-haul trucking environments.

We worked with Flex to optimize the performance, cost, power, and reliability of our embedded compute platform to meet the stringent requirements needed for running Torc’s AV 3.0 virtual driver. This is no commercial server rack setup packed full of GPUs in the cab.

It’s optimized to drive the future of autonomous freight and nothing else.

Our multi-chip adaptable architecture leverages:

Flex’s Jupiter platform
NVIDIA DRIVE AGX
NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip
NVIDIA DriveOS operating system

Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive at NVIDIA (when the partnership was announced in March 2025 ) said, “NVIDIA DRIVE AGX has been industry-proven in full production for automotive real-time applications at the edge. It delivers the high compute performance, low latency, and multi-sensor connectivity needed for Torc’s sophisticated autonomous trucking software, delivering robust perception, prediction, and planning for safe and reliable operation. Torc is on a clear path to scalable production for its commercial launch in 2027.”

Mike Thoeny, President of automotive at Flex, was also quoted at the time: “Our collaboration with Torc, Daimler Truck, and NVIDIA illustrates how Flex partners across the full ecosystem to enable mobility companies to launch next-generation technology with greater resilience and speed. We appreciate the trust Torc and Daimler Truck have placed in Flex through leveraging our Jupiter compute platform and advanced manufacturing capabilities to deliver autonomous long-haul trucking at scale.”

Torc’s work to achieve AV 3.0 has been intense, and the timeframe impossibly short, but this necessary step was anticipated years ago and well executed by the hundreds of dedicated Torc’rs that made it possible. Torc has staked our claim amongst the competition as the first autonomous freight company to fully shift to a production embedded platform.

MarsII unit by Flex for Level 2
Advanced Driver-Assistance System (ADAS) Applications.
Image courtesy of Flex.

Jupiter-T unit for Torc. Image courtesy of Flex

Jupiter-T unit for Torc. Level 4 ADAS. Image courtesy of Flex

“The incredibly intensive, time-consuming, and technically challenging effort that it took to take the virtual driver software that runs on ‘unlimited’ datacenter server racks and make it work on the highly reliable Flex embedded compute platform, all while not sacrificing performance, is a technological marvel.”

– Stephan Vargas, Torc Technology Vice President (Compute Foundation)

Pieces of the Whole

In 2019, Torc made history by partnering with Daimler Truck, creating the first OEM relationship in the business. Torc’s leaders knew this partnership was the only path to delivering a safe and scalable product on time. Both companies knew the Cascadia Freightliner would be the top choice to house the industry’s best-in-class autonomous truck – and it’s all been realized.

Follow along as we map out what happened over the last year and why it’s important now.

October 2024: Torc Robotics Performs Successful Fully Autonomous Product Validation

In October 2024, the driverless production-intent truck, redundant components, AD Kit, and the first release of the production-intent virtual driver took to the road on a closed multi-lane test track. Clocking in at over five hours in highway settings, the test was conducted at full operating speeds of up to 65 mph to optimize fuel efficiency and emulate commercial timings and conditions for future long-haul routes. The test signaled a sea-change for Torc, shifting cycles from development to productization. This occasion was no demonstration. It was the proof point for years of work. The fully robotic from hub-to-surface-to-ramp-to-highway and back production intent hardware and software were successfully on the road.

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March 2025: Torc Collaborates with Flex on Physical AI Platform for Autonomous Trucks, Accelerated by NVIDIA

In March 2025, we attended GTC in San Jose, where we announced our collaboration with NVIDIA and Flex.

April 2025: Daimler Truck’s Autonomous-Ready Fifth Generation Freightliner Cascadia Hits Texas Roads With Torc

To enable SAE Level 4 autonomous driving, the company has purposefully designed and built redundancy into the Freightliner Cascadia platform for safety-critical systems for safe, driverless operations. With over 1,500 engineering requirements, all translated into features, and a second set of electronically controlled systems like an integrated power network, the autonomous-ready Cascadia sets an industry standard for autonomous systems integration. – Daimler Truck press release April 2025

The autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia announced by Daimler Truck in April 2025 includes all essential compute stack components and sensors installed on the production line; a step that allows seamless integrate of the virtual driver software without retrofitting the platform.

Importantly, the vehicle and platform had already been proven and validated at our driverless product acceptance test in October 2024, six months prior.

May 2025: Torc Commercial Center Operations Commence

After 20 years in the robotics business, and six years of software research and development, Torc officially opened the company’s first commercial hub in May 2025, getting our trucks officially on the I-35 corridor. Our fleet has moved from our testing grounds in Albuquerque to focus on the Laredo to Fort Worth route, a crucial freight lane for many large freight customers. We’re already working in concert with them as we continue to look for more opportunities for the latter half of 2026.

August 2025: Torc Technology Center Opens

Sunny drone shot of the Torc Ann Arbor office location There are still technology refinements and milestones to hit for our virtual driver and AI development as well, and we’ll be doing that with our new technology center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Situated close to closed course test tracks and surrounded by top-notch robotics university programs, we continue to onboard the Torc’rs needed to get to our market entry timeframe.

September 2025: AV 3.0 Technology Debuts

Sunny drone shot of the Torc Ann Arbor office location There are still technology refinements and milestones to hit for our virtual driver and AI development as well, and we’ll be doing that with our new technology center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Situated close to closed course test tracks and surrounded by top-notch robotics university programs, we continue to onboard the Torc’rs needed to get to our market entry timeframe.

“We’ve never been focused on chasing timelines, or on demonstrations or headlines. We’ve just been focused on a safe and scalable product from the beginning and just doing what’s right for the industry and our partners.”

– Peter Vaughn Schmidt, CEO

Onward To 2027

We’re leading the wave of physical AI applications with our simulation environment, our computation and sensing hardware are defining the industry, and future customers are getting ride-alongs inside our production-intent trucks in Texas today. We’re set up to immediately scale and deliver on customer demand.

So, now what? What will we be doing until market entry?

Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about hub operations and the development of workflows and job creation, customer autonomous fleet onboarding transition plans, our commitment to safety and the release of our safety case, and more cutting-edge simulations and visualizations from our technology and trucks. We have time to solve a multitude of other necessary autonomous trucking puzzles, truly making Torc the industry leader, driving the future of freight.

Follow us on our social channels to keep up to date with all our announcements and upcoming events.

“There are two kinds of autonomous trucks on the road today, at the end of 2025. There are demonstration trucks – and there are Torc trucks.”

– Andrew Culhane, Chief Commercial Officer

Torc Provides Fast, Secure Self-Service for Virtual Development Using Amazon DCV

by Torc | Nov 5, 2025 | Technology, News

This case study was originally posted at the AWS Solutions site.

Overview

Torc Robotics (Torc) wanted to facilitate remote development for its distributed workforce. The company develops autonomous vehicle software and technology that’s aimed at commercializing autonomous semitrucks by 2027. To support these efforts, Torc needed a secure, robust virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution for engineers to run large GPU- and CPU-based workloads.

Torc, which was already using Amazon Web Services (AWS) for many of its workloads, built a VDI solution using Amazon DCV, which delivers high-performance remote desktop and application streaming. Now, Torc engineers have secure, highly available access to the compute resources that they need in minutes, and the company can continue working toward its goal of making highways safer using autonomous driving technology.

Opportunity | Using Amazon DCV to create the VDI Ranch for Torc

Torc—founded in 2005 and an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck since 2019—is focused on delivering an autonomous trucking software product for hub-to-hub transportation, with the vision to provide fleet customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-effective solution on the market. “Safety is a top priority at Torc,” says Jason Fox, senior engineering manager at Torc. “The trucking industry is facing driver shortages and inefficiencies, and there are many crashes on public roads that involve trucks. There is an opportunity to improve road safety and efficiency in freight transportation and Torc’s role in this is developing autonomously driving semitrucks.” In 2024, Torc completed validation of its first driver-out product release on production-intent hardware and software. The company is now testing on public roads from its autonomous hub in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

Torc’s engineers and developers work from many locations, and the company sought to support remote development in a governed, standardized environment where it could secure its intellectual property. Torc also wanted to provide flexible access to GPU resources for the machine learning research and training that supports its autonomous driving software. At the same time, Torc did not want to create a centralized environment that would have high maintenance overhead or single points of failure. “We’re cloud engineers, so we think that things should be horizontally scaled, resilient, automated, and repeatable hundreds of times; not centrally managed or where a single developer’s issues will affect other people,” says Fox.

Torc tested various VDI solutions. As a customer of AWS since 2020, it looked to see what AWS had to offer. “We lean on AWS heavily for managed services whenever we can so that we can think more about writing code and making the trucks work,” says Fox. “The services that AWS offers made sense for this project as well.” Torc worked with the AWS team to test Amazon DCV. The solution worked well for the company, and Torc ultimately used it as the main component of its in-house VDI solution, the VDI Ranch.

Solution | Spinning up GPUs in under 5 minutes using Amazon DCV

The main principle behind the VDI Ranch is the ability to spin up and down instances as needed. “We strongly feel that in cloud computing environments, servers should be cattle, not pets,” says Fox. “We should have easily reproducible servers in the cloud, and when there’s a problem with a server, you delete it and spin up another. You don’t feed and care for it like a pet.” In fact, one of the options in the VDI Ranch is a “Replace Instance” button. If a server has an issue, the developer can simply replace the instance with a new one, keeping their data and settings intact.

The VDI Ranch provides a self-service, end-user compute environment for nearly 300 developers and engineers who can get access to the compute resources they need in under 5 minutes—rather than submitting a ticket and waiting several days to have resources allocated. This greatly accelerates developer productivity.

With the VDI Ranch, Torc can provide developers with flexible access to GPU and other high-powered computing resources using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), which provides secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload. “Using AWS and Amazon DCV is a much easier way for us to provide GPU horsepower to developers when they need it,” says Fox. “We cannot provide laptops or even desktops with the kind of GPU power that we get from Amazon EC2 instances, and it’s flexible, so we can tear the instance down when we don’t need it anymore.” The VDI Ranch now powers every major area of Torc’s software development.

Torc implemented automated governance and security controls within the VDI Ranch, including integrating the VDI Ranch with Torc’s third-party identity and access management solution. Torc also implemented observability dashboards in Datadog to track networking and compute instance performance. These dashboards are used by the cloud engineers supporting the VDI Ranch, which has helped Torc more easily troubleshoot technical issues among its remote workforce, improving performance and latency.

The VDI Ranch also makes it possible for the Torc cloud engineering team to standardize the hardware that Torc employees use—which improves security and troubleshooting—while still giving engineers a development environment that uses their preferred operating system. For contractors, Torc uses Amazon WorkSpaces, which provides fully managed virtual desktops. “Using Amazon WorkSpaces, we get the benefits of managed VDI, including segmentation between employee and contractor workloads, and don’t have to manage Windows images,” says Fox.

Outcome | Improving remote development using AWS

As the company works toward releasing its autonomous trucks, Torc will continue improving the user experience of the VDI Ranch for its developers. It has recently deployed a system that intelligently shuts down instances that aren’t being used and has built a VDI-specific compute optimizer into FinOps dashboards to help users rightsize their compute resources. These measures will lead to better optimization and lower costs.

“This project would not have been possible without the AWS team engaging with us for the last 2 years,” says Fox. “I can’t think of a better relationship with a vendor who understands our challenges and helps us find solutions.”

“Using AWS and Amazon DCV is a much easier way for us to provide GPU horsepower to developers when they need it.”

Jason Fox

Senior Engineering Manager, Torc

Dave Anderson Joins the Technology Leadership Team as VP of Engineering for Torc’s Enablement Division

by Kiley Thompson | Sep 25, 2025 | News, People Ops

Rebeca Delgado, VP Engineering – Autonomy Applications

BLACKSBURG, Va – September 25, 2025 – Torc Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG and a pioneer in commercializing self-driving vehicle technology, today announced the addition of Dave Anderson, who has joined the Technology Leadership Team as the VP of Engineering for our Enablement Division.

Dave brings over 25 years of experience in technology leadership and innovation. He served as Vice President and Head of Strategy for Marelli and as Vice President of Innovation at Lear Corporation. Additionally, he was the Sr. Director of Autonomous Driving Platforms at Toyota Research Institute and the Director of Technology for Samsung Strategy & Innovation Center where he was responsible for open innovation, architecture development, and technical innovation in automotive, including the areas of ADAS and Autonomous Driving. Prior to joining Samsung, he led automotive integration for NVIDIA, developing advanced concepts for vehicle cockpit and autonomous vehicles. Dave has also held several engineering and technical roles at Altera, SiriusXM Radio, and Visteon. He was most recently with Codethink, based in Manchester, UK.

He also holds multiple international patents for embedded mobility applications, and in 2015, he was named a Rising Star by Automotive News. He earned his Electrical and Computer Engineering degree from Purdue University, as well as graduating from the Engineering Leadership Program at UC Berkeley.

Based in Ann Arbor, MI, Dave is active in his community and enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife and three kids.

About Torc Robotics

Torc, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving technology, Torc has 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc is working toward a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. In addition to its Blacksburg headquarters and engineering offices in Austin, Texas, and Montreal, Canada, Torc has a fleet operations facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, to support the company’s productization and commercialization efforts, as well as a presence in Ann Arbor, MI, to leverage the autonomous and automotive talent base in that region. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

Contacts

Laura Lawton, 408-505-5820
press@torc.ai

Rebeca Delgado Joins Torc As Vice President, Engineering – Autonomy Applications

by Torc | Sep 16, 2025 | People Ops, News

BLACKSBURG, Va – September 16, 2025 – Torc Robotics, an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG and a pioneer in commercializing self-driving vehicle technology, today announced the addition of Rebeca Delgado as VP, Engineering – Autonomy Applications, which includes responsibility for the Feature and Model Development groups.

An accomplished technology leader with more than two decades of experience in semiconductors, edge computing, and automotive systems, Rebeca most recently served as Chief Technology Officer and Senior Principal AI Engineer at Intel Automotive, where she led a diverse, multidisciplinary team in the Automotive CTO Office. In this role, she defined the company’s “whole vehicle” compute strategy, drove AI and high-performance compute innovation, and played a pivotal role in acquisitions and industry standards. Her team was responsible for pathfinding and incubation of next-generation vehicle systems and solutions, blending deep technical expertise with strategic vision and cross-functional leadership.

Rebeca’s career is marked by a steadfast passion for innovation at the edge of compute in vehicles and intelligent systems. She has been instrumental in shaping edge high-performance compute products, crafting roadmaps for autonomous driving, ADAS, and MaaS platforms, and tailoring solutions for global OEMs and Tier 1s. With expertise spanning software, compute architecture, and automotive technology, she has consistently driven industry standards and advanced the future of software-defined vehicles. A recognized thought leader, she frequently speaks at global conferences on mobility, intelligent vehicle platforms, and the evolution of AI-enabled automotive compute. Rebeca was also honored by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry, highlighting her impact and influence across the sector.

She will be based in the Torc Engineering Technology Hub in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

About Torc Robotics

Torc, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving technology, Torc has 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc is working toward a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. In addition to its Blacksburg headquarters and engineering offices in Austin, Texas, and Montreal, Canada, Torc has a fleet operations facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, to support the company’s productization and commercialization efforts, as well as a presence in Ann Arbor, MI, to leverage the autonomous and automotive talent base in that region. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

Contacts

Laura Lawton, 408-505-5820
press@torc.ai

New Phase of Torc–Edge Case Collaboration Targets Production-Ready Safety Case

by Torc | Aug 19, 2025 | Safety

Sunny drone shot of the Torc Ann Arbor office location

Independent safety assessments by Edge Case mark a pivotal step in Torc’s journey toward commercializing Level 4 autonomous trucking

Blacksburg, VA — August 19, 2025 – Torc, a pioneer in commercializing self-driving class 8 trucks, today announced a new strategic collaboration with Edge Case (EC), frontier technologies and safety-critical systems experts. This next phase of collaboration will support Torc’s mission to fully commercialize Level 4 autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S., ensuring its driverless safety case aligns with the applicable AVSC Best Practices and guidance from the Open Autonomy Safety Case (OASC). This alignment will result in a more streamlined, well-structured, safety case that improves clarity, accelerates development, and enhances cross-functional review.

This initiative will focus on a series of independent assessments of Torc’s Driverless Safety Case Framework and Evidence Sufficiency Criteria, reinforcing Torc’s commitment to safety and independent validation in preparation for production and commercialization. Looking ahead, Edge Case will conduct an assessment of completed safety case evidence. These assessments will be conducted independently by Edge Case and will include detailed reports and collaborative review sessions with Torc’s safety, engineering and operations teams.

“Edge Case brings world-class expertise in building rigorous and comprehensive safety programs,” said Jerry Lopez, Senior Director of Safety Assurance at Torc. “Their leadership and experience across multiple autonomy segments make them an ideal partner as we move toward production readiness.”

This announcement comes on the heels of Torc’s recent appointment of Steve Kenner as Chief Safety Officer and the company’s ongoing prioritization of safety through integrated, cross-functional collaboration.

“This partnership with Torc represents a pivotal step forward in advancing autonomous trucking safety,” said Nathan Parker, Chief Executive Officer of Edge Case. “By leveraging our deep experience across autonomy domains, we’re helping ensure that Torc’s safety case is not only rigorous and transparent, but also production-ready for real-world deployment.”

With this collaboration, Torc is advancing toward its goal of launching fully driverless, commercial autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. by 2027.

About Torc

Torc, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a global leader and pioneer in trucking. Founded in 2005 at the birth of the self-driving technology, Torc has 20 years of experience in pioneering safety-critical, self-driving applications. Torc is working toward a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing autonomous trucks for long-haul applications in the U.S. In addition to its Blacksburg headquarters and engineering offices in Austin, Texas, and Montreal, Canada, Torc has a fleet operations facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas, to support the company’s productization and commercialization efforts, as well as a presence in Ann Arbor, MI, to leverage the autonomous and automotive talent base in that region. Torc’s purpose is driving the future of freight with autonomous technology. As the world’s leading autonomous trucking solution, we empower exceptional employees, deliver a focused, hub-to-hub autonomous truck product, and provide our customers with the safest, most reliable, and cost-efficient solution to the market.

About Edge Case

Edge Case is the trusted technical partner for companies working with frontier technologies and sophisticated systems. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Edge Case supports industry leaders across automotive, aerospace, defense, energy, and AI as they design, build, and deploy complex, critical systems. With deep expertise in autonomy, functional safety, and systems engineering, Edge Case helps teams navigate evolving regulatory landscapes and operational risk. Utilizing DevSafeOps, Edge Case enables organizations to digitize safety workflows, generate defensible safety cases, and accelerate readiness for launch. Whether supporting autonomous vehicles, robotic systems, or next-generation AI applications, Edge Case is on a mission to ensure a safer tomorrow.

Contacts

Laura Lawton, 408-505-5820
press@torc.ai

Ribbon Cut in Ann Arbor as Torc Expands Engineering Footprint

by Cal Zweigle | Aug 11, 2025 | News

Torc Robotics' CEO cutting the opening ceremony ribbon of Torc's new office in Ann Arbor, MI.

Ribbon Cut in Ann Arbor as Torc Expands Engineering Footprint

Ann Arbor, MI – August 7, 2025 – Under a bright summer sky, Torc celebrated the official grand opening of its newest technology hub in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The milestone event brought together Torc’rs, their families, community leaders, and one of Torc’s striking autonomous trucks as the centerpiece of the celebration.

The morning began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony greeted by warm smiles and rounds of applause. CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt and Chief Technology Officer CJ King welcomed the crowd, sharing the significance of the new location in Torc’s journey toward commercializing Level 4 autonomous trucking technology.

Quentin L. Messer, Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and chair of the Michigan Strategic Fund, highlighted the project’s impact:

“The MEDC, and the Michigan Strategic Fund Board, were pleased to support this project, which encompasses each of the three pillars of our ‘Make it in Michigan’ economic development strategy:
People: Hiring, and building up, an engineering talent pipeline here in-state.
Places: Creating an opportunity for people to live, work, and play all in the Ann Arbor region.
Projects: Creating up to 500 new jobs and investing at least $5.59 million in Michigan.
And, you’ve picked an incredible time to ‘Make it in Michigan.’”

Torc Robotics employees smile as they hold the ribbon during the autonomous trucking company's Ann Arbor office opening.

Outside, guests mingled in the warm August sun while kids, parents, and even a few four-legged friends enjoyed the morning. Inside, visitors explored the 32,000-square-foot facility, complete with modern conference rooms and advanced AI-powered labs designed to bring Torc’rs together to tackle some of the most complex engineering challenges.

CJ King, a Michigan native, reflected on the opening: “Ann Arbor is home to exceptional engineering talent and top-tier research partnerships. It’s exactly the kind of environment where breakthrough ideas thrive, and I’m excited as a local to see what our growing teams here will accomplish.”

For Torc, the Ann Arbor opening is more than a new address. It’s a strategic investment in innovation and talent. Working closely with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Torc secured incentives to support its expansion and hiring plans, reinforcing Michigan’s role as a center for mobility technology.

As Peter Vaughan Schmidt noted, “While the facility has been operational for several months, this event marks the formal launch of our growing presence in the region. Ann Arbor’s strong engineering ecosystem and proximity to world-class academic institutions make it an ideal location to advance our Level 4 autonomous trucking technology.”

With the ribbon officially cut and the new office now fully operational, Torc’s Ann Arbor team is ready to help drive the future of freight — right from the heart of one of the country’s most innovative cities.

For more information, visit www.torc.ai.