(BLACKSBURG, VA) Torc Robotics doubled its headquarters facility this week in Blacksburg, Virginia with the completion of a major construction project. Although the nearly 16,000 square-foot expansion marks another milestone in Torc’s growing role as a powerhouse in automated truck technology, it is already insufficient space for the whole team.
Torc, the leader in commercializing heavy-duty, self-driving vehicle and trucking technology, has been on a growth tear for the past five years. The company got an extra bump last fall when Daimler Trucks acquired a majority stake in the firm, with a commitment to commercializing Level 4 automated trucks within the decade. The partners are working on integrating the technology while developing the trucks to accommodate necessary redundancies and streamline system integration.
“After embarking on the truck effort, we immediately needed more space for our growing team to collaborate and for the big trucks in our garage bays,” said Michael Fleming, Torc Founder. The expansion is 15,800 square-feet, two-stories tall, and encompasses a variety of uses including offices, community rooms, garage bays and parking. “We’re happy to have this extra space, but we have even bigger plans to accommodate our growing team,” Fleming said.
In May, Torc announced that the firm would increase company size by more than 50 percent. “This is just the start,” Fleming said. “Over the next several years, we will be hiring aggressively. Expect more announcements from Torc,” he said. “Commercializing automated trucks on public roads is complex and we will need additional talent to get us there.” Torc is continuing to recruit for many software engineering positions, including infrastructure and tools, web development, Linux, and cloud technology.
Torc’s headquarters is located in Blacksburg, Virginia, which is often considered an up and coming region for advanced technology. Torc will remain in Blacksburg, Fleming said, but will also establish other locations as the Level 4 truck technology and testing develops.
“We believe our location has been part of our success,” Fleming said. “I came out of Virginia Tech, so this seemed like the ideal place to launch a company. People in this area tend to pursue efforts for the longer term. They are also very hardworking and humble. I’ve always believed that a revolution and a disruption like bringing self-driving trucks to market is a marathon — not a sprint and it doesn’t happen overnight.”
While Torc’s headquarters expansion is complete, it is not fully occupied because of the pandemic. Some employees are beginning to move back into the offices, but many employees are still working from home at this time. “We’re looking forward to when we can all return to our office and enjoy working in the new headquarters space,” Fleming said.
About Torc Robotics
Torc Robotics, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a member of the Daimler Trucks family. Torc offers a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing self-driving trucks. Torc has more than 10 years of experience in automating heavy equipment for safety-critical operations.
The strength of Torc’s winning teams comes in part from the diverse individual contributions from each team member. A variety of backgrounds, life experiences, and viewpoints can contribute to a wealth of perspectives on the importance of safety.
In Part 1 of our National Safety Month blog highlight, we outlined how Torc’rs view safety as a metric for success, and the importance of how the seemingly mundane tasks and procedures contribute to our overall goal.
With the commercialization of autonomous vehicles frequently referred to as a “race,” the discussion of competitiveness often turns to which company holds the best technological advantage over the others.
However, while Torc is notorious among internal teams for setting aggressive technological goals, we also have the perspective of over a decade of commercializing self-driving technology for a variety of different industries. Our approach is an iterative one, focused on safety.
We recognize that on the road to commercialization, it is the team that can build a sustainable, safe solution that will ultimately deliver. Under the pressures of growth, safety becomes more critical, not less.
Earlier this year, like many organizations in growth mode, our management team unveiled a set of company-wide goals for bolstering infrastructure, releasing new software capabilities, and increasing our fleet efficiency. On top of these goals came the overarching mission presented by our founder, Michael Fleming: a safety goal to focus all teams on working to preventing incidents.
For National Safety Month, Torc’rs are explaining how they measure success through the lens of safety, and describing ways that they reinforce safety in their day-to-day operations.
Safety as a metric for a successful test
To our Operational Safety team, a safe test begins with preparation and is the key indicator of success.
Kyle Lansing, Operational Safety Engineer Explain safety as a metric in testing.
I recently trained a new group of Safety Conductors and I explained the importance of why every member of the test crew should strive for tests that are safe, efficient, and successful. Safety is the key metric there. Any test, in order to be successful, must be safe. For example, say a test doesn’t provide all the data we were originally looking for. If that test is executed safely, then it was successful.
What is a safe test?
Obviously, it is first a test that avoids danger or risk. But I believe it’s more than just everyone coming back having avoided a crash. If our test crew wasn’t prepared or if someone was uncomfortable with the vehicle behavior, Torc wouldn’t qualify that as a safe test.
How do you incorporate safety into your day-to-day job?
While we train and prepare to act rapidly in critical situations, I believe the true reflection of a robust safety program lies in the day-to-day operations. Every well-prepared test plan, checklist, and brief is one step toward ensuring a safer test.
In my day-to-day life, a safe test begins about 1.5 hours prior to us ever starting up a vehicle. There are inspections, crew task lists, and an assembly about the goals of our trip and expected behavior from both the vehicle and the test crew. Safety starts with preparation and I work to make sure everyone is prepared.
Myra Blanco, Daimler Torc Senior Technical Fellow Explain safety as a metric in testing.
An important measurement of whether an effort is safe is the absence of safety-related incidents (e.g., crash, near crash). However, if we only look at those incidents that result in severe consequences – crashes – it might be too late. There are probably a lot of things we could have caught beforehand (e.g., near crashes, minor protocol discrepancies). Incidents are symptoms of actions that were not appropriate before the actual issue manifests. Defining safety metrics involves making sure you have put all the possible safeguards in place.
Torc software engineers rigorously test code prior to on-road testing
There is not a single metric of safety, it is a conglomerate of multiple things. If we take crashes, for example – I don’t call them accidents for a reason – crashes have contributing factors. Let’s look at this metaphor: If you think about a piece of swiss cheese that has a lot of holes, imagine each one of those holes is a factor. When all those holes intersect, something can fall through the middle – this is akin to when multiple contributing factors line up to cause something to go wrong. So, it is not an accident that an incident happens – it is a contribution of multiple issues. In the case of a typical car crash, perhaps the person was distracted, was fatigued, or was speeding, combined with the vehicle having a potential fault or failure. None of those things happen randomly.
To help prevent these issues, my team works to identify and mitigate contributing factors at four levels: people, technology, environment, and vehicle. For example, a metric of success is ensuring you have 100% of your drivers trained. This shows that Torc is providing the appropriate information to do their job safely. Another would be ensuring that there are appropriate communication systems in place. Communication channels that are open are one of the most important parts of developing a safety management system.
Safety starts long before the road
Clearly, the process of avoiding incidents begins long before we put tires to the road. This process is established in the technical development stages as well, as our software engineers explain below.
Manas Gupta, Software Engineer in Behaviors, Planning & Controls What is one task or process that you perform that forwards safety in your day-to-day work?
Safety is the most important and integral part of all the core values at Torc. As a team, we work to develop software without compromising those core values. We make sure that our self-driving software is passed through various stages of testing before it is ready to deploy on the vehicle and can be run on public roads.
I follow three stages of testing to make sure the software I write or modify is safe to be deployed on the vehicle. First, I safeguard my code with unit tests for the given functionality, so that future unwanted changes can be caught in the development. Second, I seek peer review of my code. Last, I test the code on a simulated environment with all the possible scenarios to make sure the code is robust and can be tested on the autonomous vehicle on public roads.
Elijah Hodges, System Integration Engineer Co-op in Systems Integration Explain safety as a metric in testing.
The Torc mission is to save lives. Safety is not just a part of our goal, it is our goal. If the tests we perform were to introduce dangerous situations, then we are going directly against our mission.
How do you incorporate safety into your day-to-day job?
The System Integration team is responsible for overseeing the high-level picture of vehicle performance. We help coordinate releasing new development onto our self-driving vehicles for testing to ensure that these changes improve the system as a whole. While a developer may just be implementing a change to fix a very specific issue, it is our job to notice and comment on how the change may affect peripheral responses. Ultimately, we are in charge of deciding if new changes are safe enough to be accepted into the software. Because we are not writing the code ourselves, it takes away the emotional temptation to accept new code changes just because they work and encourages us to determine if the overall performance was improved.
One day-to-day task that improves safety is our morning sync meetings every morning. Communication is absolutely vital for safety and having a venue for promoting that every single day is one of the best ways to find problems before they escalate.
We’re driving the future of freight safely and sustainably.
Elijah Hodges, System Integration Engineer Co-op in Systems Integration
When humans might fail, process prevails
The string that has tied all these different teams together is process. Process helps us make sure the important tasks identified are accomplished every time.
Denise Thompson Harmon, Department Manager in Behaviors, Planning & Controls What is one task or process that you perform that forwards safety in your day-to-day work?
Being an Agile coach, I have always been driven by process. We humans are fallible, and we are going to forget to do things. So, my goal is to make sure that we have trained well enough and ingrained these processes so that they become a habit – it’s just what we do. My goal every day is to make sure we are being clear on our processes and keep training individuals in those processes to ensure that they are following them.
Additionally, we look for opportunities to grow. One of the agile pillars is relentless process improvement. With technology changing so quickly, and industry changing so fast, we can’t let our guard down. So, every day you have to be learning, every day you have to be growing, and every day you have to be focused. We know that humans are fallible, so we ask ourselves, “does our process support catching human error before we deploy software into the field?” I want to make sure we build that quality into the product and it is not an afterthought.
Safety culture involves everyone
While process has been interwoven into all these perspectives, so has the importance of communication. In that way, our mission is also reinforced by our safety culture.
Ruel Faruque, Sr. Operational Safety Engineer What does your team do to contribute to the safety culture at Torc?
When put in charge of Operational Safety for Torc’s self-driving passenger car project, I learned how important it was to make safety a dialogue – to have discussions with the team carrying out the policies and to witness the protocols in action. Safety policies and protocols are much more effective if the team following them understands the underlying motivation, and many times, the team can suggest a more efficient and robust solution to the original safety concern.
Torc’s safety culture centers around three principles:
Speak up – if you have a safety concern, voice it. We provide multiple methods to do so, whether it’s immediately to the test crew, to your team lead, or via anonymous feedback.
Lessons learned – Learning lessons is a mission of continual improvement. At the end of a test or any other effort, it’s important to honestly evaluate what went well, what could have gone better, what was learned, and what should be changed for the future.
Focus on preventing future incidents, rather than identifying singular blame. Rarely does an incident have a single cause. Identifying all contributing factors yields multiple areas to make corrective action [summarized from Engineering a Safer World by Nancy Leveson].
The Operational Safety team teaches people the safety culture, empowers Torc’rs to exercise it, and keeps a pulse on the effectiveness, adjusting as needed to keep safety a priority at Torc.
(BLACKSBURG) Torc Robotics, a leader in self-driving vehicle systems, continues its strong recruiting efforts even under social distancing and safer-at-home orders. Torc has steadily added new employees since January and plans to increase the company size by more than 50 percent before year end.
Torc’s recruiting process has changed to accommodate personal safety during the pandemic. “We are very fortunate that most of us can work from home – and our team has been using this time to scale up our virtual testing and future fleet infrastructure,” said Michael Fleming, Torc’s CEO.
“Over the past 10 years, we’ve built our culture on winning teams and find that Torc’rs are great at solving problems – including bringing on new team members during a pandemic,” he said.
Adaptations for full-time hiring have included video panel interviews and additional relocation assistance for full-time employees. Until the Torc offices reopen, new hires are working from home and being onboarded remotely. A new cohort of team members started this week, and all are quickly learning the ropes, according to Fleming.
Torc is hiring across multiple software engineering areas, including infrastructure and tools, web development, Linux, and cloud technology.
Torc also remains committed to summer internships and co-op positions, which have been transformed to remote work opportunities for summer 2020. Students in these positions are fully embedded into technical teams and interact with Torc’rs across the company via coffee chats, lunch & learns, and other collaboration opportunities.
The company’s continued growth supports Torc’s automated truck development in partnership with Daimler Trucks North America, the market leader in trucking. “Over the next several years, we will continue to hire aggressively,” said Fleming. “Commercializing automated trucks on public roads is complex and we will need additional talent to get us there,” he said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint and our team is committed to the long-term.”
To accommodate its growing team, Torc is completing a new headquarters expansion later this year, which will add nearly 16,000 square feet and is designing additional future expansion projects.
Torc develops Level 4 self-driving technology, which does not require human intervention, but operates within specific areas or use cases, such as locations, or types of roads. Torc partners with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and mobility companies to integrate the technology on their vehicle platforms. In 2019, Torc joined the Daimler Trucks family to partner on commercializing self-driving truck technology.
“At Torc, our mission is to save lives through self-driving technology,” Fleming said.
“The fastest path to commercialized is through OEMs and the strongest business case is in trucking.”
About Torc Robotics
Torc Robotics, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a member of the Daimler Trucks family. Torc offers a complete self-driving vehicle software and integration solution and is currently focusing on commercializing self-driving trucks. Torc has more than 10 years of experience in automating heavy equipment for safety-critical applications.
As a new decade begins, I’ve spent some time reflecting on some truisms as CEO of Torc for the last 15 years. There are many things that can be attributed to our success so far, but I believe the following three are critical.
Winning teams
Surround yourself with good people focused on a common mission. For us, our mission has been saving lives through self-driving technology and our ‘Winning Teams’ core value. We would not be here today without the many Torc’rs that have committed themselves to our mission. Good people are a prerequisite for success.
It’s a marathon
Great things are not accomplished overnight. I’m reminded that we started this journey in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge; well before the “hype” of autonomous vehicles and even before the creation of the SAE levels of automation. The Torc team has grown through continuous, dedicated work. If you run a marathon as if it is a sprint, you will collapse before you cross the finish line. This endeavor is a marathon.
Create Value
Technology has no impact without a business case. If companies focus on the “coolness” of a technology and not on the value it creates for its customer base, there is little impact. For the last decade, Torc has shipped self-driving products to customers across several markets. I believe the trucking industry is the next mover in the self-driving space.
In 2019, Torc joined the Daimler Trucks family to focus on bringing automated trucks to market to help transform an industry that so many of us depend on every day. The effort will be a challenge, but Torc is used to creating solutions that have never been accomplished before.
I believe we have the people, the drive, and the business case to succeed in our continuing mission to help make the future of transportation safer.
As you work toward your engineering degree, you may be wondering how to stand out from the crowd of graduating seniors competing for the best jobs. You might even be unsure of what exact career path you are passionate about pursuing.
At Torc, we offer positions for college students on our engineering teams to help you kick-start your career. Co-ops allow you to develop your skills, build your professional network and get paid to work on autonomous vehicles.
In this article, we’ve collected everything you need to know about working at Torc as a college student, then asked our current co-ops to provide a rundown of their experience.
Co-ops Explained
Cooperative education positions (or Co-ops) are a way to begin your career journey by learning valuable skills about teamwork and time management while contributing to real-world solutions. These positions help you apply the knowledge you’ve gained in your education and learn new skills that will put you ahead of the game.
These positions are generally full-time and organized by semester. This includes summer and winter semesters, which are good options for students who want to fit full-time work into their studies.
The Benefits of a Co-op
Work on the important projects – When you join Torc as a co-op, you won’t be placed on a separate team or given specific student-based work. Our co-ops are fully embedded members of the engineering team they join.
Get started in the professional world – Interfacing with other engineering professionals on your team allows you to create a lasting network of connections and mentors.
Gain real experience to bring to the job – The catch-22 that recent graduates often face is the standard “you need experience to get experience” conundrum. Taking a semester to develop your experience will help you differentiate yourself in the market, as well as set you up for a full-time job at Torc.
Tips for Applying to a Torc Co-op
The typical education level for our co-op hires are juniors all the way up to PhD-level students. Candidates who showcase a willingness to learn, strong work ethic, and passion for changing the world with self-driving technology are going to fit in well with our team. Additionally, a background in the best practices of core languages such as C++ and ROS are key for many of our positions. You can also read more in our blog about the most important coding languages for autonomous vehicle engineers.
We have openings year-round and offer flexible work terms based on our hiring needs. We recommend applying at least one semester prior to when you would like to join. See our careers page for more information and open software engineer jobs.
An Inside look at Torc Co-ops
Haseeb Chaudhry, Software Engineer Co-op.
What influence has this co-op had on your chosen career path?
My time with Torc has reinforced my career aspirations to pursue an automated driving solution. Between Torc’s business model, company culture, and technical talent, it has been an informative and self-revelatory experience.
With Torc being a key player in the commercial automated trucking industry, experience gained here will certainly be a major takeaway for future endeavors. Hands-on experience working with closely collaborating teams yields well-rounded exposure to facets of autonomous driving, robust development in a rapidly changing environment, and safety critical software engineering.
What does your day typically look like at Torc?
Lots of poring over data logs to optimize and tune algorithms for performance. Torc makes a point of testing new features and updates regularly, so it is a common occurrence for engineers to be part of on-vehicle tests at least once or twice a week, if not more.
What are the top two things you’ve learned here?
Workspaces are your most useful tool/feature in Ubuntu
No matter how you put it, whenever you tell your friends you work with a self-driving car company, it will always be cool
Zachary Joswick, Software Engineer Co-op
What influence has this co-op had on your chosen career path?
When I started at Torc I was majoring in Mechanical Engineering and was planning on working in the design and manufacturing side of the robotics industry. This was a career path that I had been tracking towards since middle school and was something I had a deep passion for. So, you can imagine my surprise when I was accepted as a software engineering co-op. I was thrown in head-first – which in retrospect was the best possible starting point – and was tasked with some C++ onboarding and basic application development.
Much to my surprise, it was very intuitive (or at least as intuitive as C++ can be) and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I became increasingly engrossed in the developer culture and found that I actually enjoyed this work more than mechanical engineering work. My one-semester co-op turned into two, and eventually, I decided to change my educational path and switch to a major in Computer Science with a concentration in Software Engineering. Now I’m working on finishing out my senior year and will begin my career as a software engineer at Torc once I graduate. Without my time here at Torc, I would have never found my true passion, nor ended up in the great position I am today.
Do you think your co-op position will give you an advantage entering the job market?
Absolutely. The value of experience in an actual corporate environment cannot be understated. The theory introduced in college classes is valuable, but they often gloss over the transition from these theoretical concepts into tangible, business-ready outputs.
Working in a corporate environment teaches you how to effectively use things like version control tools and tasking systems from day one. Having that knowledge (and putting it on your resume) when looking for a job puts you leagues ahead of students who did not complete similar co-ops and did not get the same experiences/knowledge.
What advice would you give to people interested in a co-op at Torc?
Firstly, if you are even slightly interested in a co-op with us, you should definitely apply. The experience you can get as a co-op at Torc is incredibly valuable and you get to work with some of the best engineers in the industry. We are working on systems that can change the world, and you can be part of it. Secondly, start familiarizing yourself with C++, docker, Git, and ROS. These are leading languages and technologies in the robotics industry as a whole, and the skills are transferable to a variety of different companies even outside of Torc.
What influence has this co-op had on your chosen career path?
The co-op has allowed me to get practical, professional experience in computer vision and deep learning. It has provided me the opportunity to learn about developing the full software stack in autonomous vehicles.
My day typically involves reading about the state-of-the-art techniques in technical papers, collection and extraction of data from Torc vehicles, and training relevant neural networks on the collected data. It also involves fun activities such as ping pong and chess.
What are the top things you’ve learned during your time here?
ROS (Robot Operating System) skills
I’ve become a lot better at ping-pong
Nikhil Bhaldoiya Software Engineer Co-op
Do you think your co-op position will give you an advantage entering the job market?
Definitely. We are directly working on the software stack which has been deployed on the vehicle. It was my dream to work with such a huge code base. Also, working with a code with safety-critical standards can help to strengthen my profile.
What advice would you give to people interested in a co-op at Torc?
Put a lot of effort into learning C++ and core robotics topics. Start using version control systems like Git.
What are the top two things you’ve learned here?
How to write better code, and really think about the other team members who are going to read this code
Humbleness – to always be hardworking and polite
John Blankenhorn, Software Engineer Co-op
Do you think your co-op position will give you an advantage entering the job market?
Yes, I have learned countless things here that are not taught in school, both on a technical level, and a social level. There is nothing that can replace real-world experience. School is certainly a necessary component, but co-op positions are a stellar opportunity to get your foot in the door and start adding to your skillset before seeking full-time employment. This co-op has cemented my interest in robotics and autonomous vehicles.
What advice would you give to people interested in a co-op at Torc?
Communicational skills, a humble attitude, and not only a willingness, but a desire to learn new things, are arguably just as important as technical skills. The people that come in and immediately know what they are doing are few and far between. The people I see succeed the most here are those that are willing to admit when they are wrong and embrace new thoughts and ideas.
What are the top two things you’ve learned here?
No matter how brilliant it is, the work you do is useless if you do not communicate with others while doing it. No single person is going to solve the problems we are attempting to solve. This is a collaborative team effort, and communication is a necessity.
A radiating exuberance for the technology goes a long way. Having a passion for what you do can not only improve your own performance but inspire others to do the same.
At Torc, co-ops get to be an integral part of developing rapidly changing technology. Whether you decide to continue your career at Torc after graduation, or explore a job elsewhere, this semester of experience is an irreplaceable investment in yourself.
(BLACKSBURG) Torc Robotics was one of several companies featured in Look Who’s Driving – a NOVA documentary that premiered on PBS Wednesday night. The documentary takes a high-level look at the issues and technology behind self-driving vehicles.
Local viewers will recognize some of the scenery, along with footage of Torc’s self-driving car operating in rain and snow, plus traveling to Washington, D.C. Interviews with CEO Michael Fleming highlight the many years of work that have brought the technology to today’s capabilities.
“We are happy to play a role in educating consumers and technologists alike to the issues and capabilities of self-driving vehicles,” Fleming said. “Self-driving technology has tremendous potential to save lives, but it needs to be rolled out with safety as a prime consideration.”
Torc develops Level 4 technology, in which the vehicle makes the decisions, but operates within constraints, such as prescribed routes, types of environments, or even time of day.
About Torc Robotics
Torc Robotics, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a member of the Daimler Trucks family. Torc offers a complete autonomous software solution for mobility applications including self-driving cars and transit vehicles and vehicles in safety-critical applications, such as defense, mining, and agriculture. Founded in 2005, Torc has integrated its self-driving solutions on ground vehicles ranging from SUVs to 300-ton mining trucks. The company currently employs around 100 people.
Development and testing of trucks with SAE Level 4 intent technology on public roads in Virginia
Follows extensive testing and safety validation on closed-loop track
Torc Robotics is part of the global development network within the recently established Daimler Trucks Autonomous Technology Group
Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Trucks & Buses: “Torc Robotics is a leader in automated driving technology. Daimler Trucks is the leader in trucks and we understand the needs of the industry. Bringing Level 4 trucks to the public roads is a major step toward our goal to deliver reliable and safe trucks for the benefits of our customers, our economies and society.”
Blacksburg / Stuttgart / Portland – Daimler Trucks and Torc Robotics are actively developing and testing automated trucks with SAE Level 4 intent technology on public roads. The initial routes are on highways in southwest Virginia, where Torc Robotics is headquartered. All automated runs require both an engineer overseeing the system and a highly trained safety driver certified by Daimler Trucks and Torc Robotics. All safety drivers hold a commercial driver’s license and are specially trained in vehicle dynamics and automated systems.
The deployment on public roads takes place after months of extensive testing and safety validation on a closed-loop track. As part of the comprehensive safety process by Daimler Trucks and Torc Robotics, both test track and on-road validation play an integral role in establishing the essential building blocks for successfully advancing automated technology.
Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Trucks & Buses: “Torc Robotics is a leader in automated driving technology. Daimler Trucks is the leader in trucks and we understand the needs of the industry. Bringing Level 4 trucks to the public roads is a major step toward our goal to deliver reliable and safe trucks for the benefits of our customers, our economies and society.”
Torc: software experts, part of the Daimler Trucks family
Based in the U.S., Torc is now part of Daimler Trucks. Authorities approved the majority stake acquisition by the truck manufacturer. Torc Robotics is now a part of the newly established Autonomous Technology Group of Daimler Trucks. The truck manufacturer is consolidating all its expertise and activities in automated driving into the global organization with locations in Blacksburg and Portland in the U.S. as well as in Stuttgart, Germany.
“Being part of Daimler Trucks is the start of a new chapter for Torc,” says Michael Fleming, Founder of Torc Robotics. “Our whole team is thrilled to be working alongside our Daimler colleagues as we pursue the commercialization of Level 4 trucks to bring this technology to the market because we strongly believe it can save lives.”
Torc is one of the world’s most experienced companies in the field of automated driving – with highly sophisticated, roadworthy technology and years of expertise with heavy-duty commercial vehicles. “Asimov”, Torc’s system for automated driving, has been proven in urban and long-distance routes as well as in rain, snow, fog and varying light conditions.
“Being part of Daimler Trucks is the start of a new chapter for Torc.”
Michael Fleming, CEO of Torc Robotics
Portland develops redundant vehicle chassis and infrastructure
Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) will focus on further evolving automated driving technology and vehicle integration for heavy-duty trucks. The DTNA team is working on a truck chassis perfectly suited for highly automated driving, particularly the redundancy of systems needed to provide the maximum level of reliability and the maximum level of safety.
Roger Nielsen, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America LLC: “As we pair Daimler’s best-in-class safest-on-the-road trucks with Torc’s genius in engineering Level 4 vehicles, we have no doubt we will do great things in the future. We look forward to writing history together. The U.S. highways are the perfect place to develop automated driving technology.”
Within the Autonomous Technology Group, DTNA is also building an infrastructure required for the operational testing of initial application cases. This consists of a main control center and logistics hubs. These hubs are located along high density freight corridors where many customers operate and within close proximity of interstates and highways.
For more information on the partnership between Daimler and Torc Robotics, listen to the debut of Daimler Trucks’ “Transportation Matters” podcast featuring Martin Daum and Michael Fleming. Their in-depth discussion peels back the layers of the minds behind two influential leaders in this strategic partnership. Listen in to hear how their inspiration, passion and dedication sparked this journey, forwarding revolutionary technology that will be used to increase freight efficiency and reduce accidents on the highway.
The podcast episode with Michael Fleming can be found on the following channels:
This document includes predictive statements reflecting our current estimation concerning the course of future events. Words such as »anticipate«, »assume«, »believe«, »estimate«, »expect«, »intend«, »can/could«, »plan«, »project«, »should« and similar terms are indicative of this kind of predictive statement. These statements are subject to a range of risks and unknowns. Some examples of this situation are scenarios such as unfavourable developments in economic conditions, particularly a decrease in demand within our most important commercial markets, negative developments in the available refinancing options on the credit and financial markets, unavoidable events and forces majeures, such as natural catastrophes, acts of terror, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents, and their causal effects on our sales, purchasing, production and/or financing activities, fluctuations in exchange rates, a reorientation of consumer preferences toward smaller and less profitable vehicles or a potential loss of acceptance of our products and services culminating in a reduced ability to define prices and reduced utilization of production capacity, increases in the prices of fuels and raw materials, suspensions in production stemming from bottlenecks in material-supply chains, workforce strikes or supplier insolvencies, decreases in the resale values of used vehicles, successful implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-enhancement measures, the business prospects of the companies in which we retain substantial numbers of shares, successful implementation of strategic cooperation agreements and joint ventures, changes to laws and regulations, stipulations and official directives, particularly those affecting vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety, as well as the conclusion on ongoing official trials or inspections, or of trials or inspections commissioned or instigated by official agencies, and the verdicts or pending or potentially menacing future legal proceedings as well as other risks and imponderables, of which some are described in the current annual report under the heading “Risks and Chances Report”. Should one of these risk factors or these imponderables occur, or should the operative assumptions forming the foundation for predictive statements prove unfounded, then the actual results and events could display substantial deviations from the results and events as directly or implicitly enunciated in these statements. It is not our intention, nor do we undertake any obligation, to update predictive statements on a continuing basis, as these are based solely and exclusively on the conditions prevailing on the day of publication.
Daimler at a glance Daimler AG is one of the most successful automotive firms in the world. With its Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services business units, the Daimler Group is one of the predominant producers of premium cars as well as the world’s largest manufacturer of trucks over six tonnes. Daimler Financial Services provides financing, leasing, fleet management, financial investments, brokerage of credit cards and insurances, as well as innovative mobility services. The company’s founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history with the invention of the automobile in the year 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, Daimler remains consistently committed to its motivation and obligations in shaping safe and sustainable mobility for the future. The Group’s focus is on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior automobiles that appeal and fascinate. Daimler consistently invests in the development of efficient drive trains with the long-term goal of locally emission-free driving: from high-tech combustion engines to hybrid vehicles to electric drive trains powered by battery or fuel cell. Furthermore, the company follows a consistent path towards intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, autonomous driving and new mobility concepts. Daimler willingly accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility toward society and the environment. Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. Its current brand portfolio includes, in addition to the world’s most valuable premium automotive brand, Mercedes-Benz (source: Interbrand Study, 4.10.2018), as well as Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes me, the brands smart, EQ, Freightliner, Western Star, BharatBenz, FUSO, Setra and Thomas Built Buses and the brands of Daimler Financial Services: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Daimler Truck Financial. The company is listed on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt and Stuttgart (stock exchange symbol DAI). In 2018, the Group sold around 3.4 million vehicles and employed a workforce of more than 298,700 people. Revenue amounted to 167.4 billion euros, EBIT stood at 11.1 billion euros.
Torc Robotics, a leader in self-driving vehicle systems, is breaking ground this week on a new headquarters expansion that will almost double the existing space. The 15,800-square-foot addition will serve Torc’s growing team, which is expected to expand significantly with Daimler Trucks’ pending acquisition of a majority stake in the Blacksburg-based company.
Torc and Daimler Trucks, a division in the Daimler Group, the inventor of the truck and world’s largest manufacturer of heavy and medium trucks, recently announced that they would be joining forces in a one-of-a-kind combination to commercialize highly automated trucks (SAE Level 4) on U.S. roads.
This acquisition, combined with Torc’s expanding commercial capabilities and additional strategic partnerships, is contributing to Blacksburg’s growing national reputation for technology prowess. This livable, high-tech community is home to hundreds of innovative technology firms, specializing in information technology, unmanned systems, biosciences, advanced manufacturing and more. The region is free from brutal commutes and high housing costs found in many tech hubs.
Once the acquisition is complete, Torc will be part of the newly established Autonomous Technology Group—part of Daimler Trucks’ global effort to put highly automated trucks onto the roads within a decade. Torc will remain a separate entity, retaining its name and expanding its team, existing customer base and facilities in Blacksburg.
“A larger team will position us to meet the growing demand of our customers in the self-driving space and engage the trucking market,” said Michael Fleming, CEO of Torc. “We are a passionate, tightly-knit team, motivated to save lives and transform transportation. We are looking forward to adding new Torc’rs.”
Torc’s current job openings include positions in active sensing and information fusion, self-driving behaviors, path planning, systems engineering, vehicle safety and testing, senior-level management, planning and operations.
The forthcoming two-story building, which will accommodate the surge of new employees, will include offices, community rooms, garage bays and parking. It is expected to be completed by March 2020.
About Torc Robotics
Torc Robotics, headquartered in Blacksburg, Virginia, offers a complete autonomous software solution for mobility applications including self-driving cars and transit vehicles by working with partners in automotive, transit and technology. Torc also provides self-driving technology in safety-critical applications, including defense, mining, and agriculture. Founded in 2005, Torc has integrated its self-driving solutions on ground vehicles ranging from SUVs to 300-ton mining trucks. The company currently employs around 100 people.
Torc has tested its on-road and traffic capabilities in demo self-driving cars that successfully logged robotic testing in more than 20 states while operating on both public roads and closed courses with zero accidents. The testing included a coast-to-coast trip across the United States and extensive driving in densely-packed streets such as those located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Torc’s inclement weather capabilities were featured at CES 2019.
