The European heavy-duty truck manufacturers MAN and Scania, which belong to the TRATON GROUP, have agreed to a global partnership with TuSimple, a self-driving technology company based in San Diego, California. The purpose of the collaboration is to bring Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) level 4 trucks onto public roads. The first Scania test vehicles with TuSimple technology are underway and will be tested on public roads in Sweden in hub-to-hub motorway scenarios.

Daimler Trucks and Waymo have initiated a similar collaboration, where Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia will be offered as an SAE level 4 truck using Waymo Driver in the U.S. market. Volvo Cars, Nissan-Renault, Fiat-Chrysler, and Jaguar Land Rover are already working with Waymo on self-driving technology. In addition, Daimler Trucks’ US subsidiary, Torc Robotics, is focusing on autonomous-driving software and driverless cars.

Since October, people have been able to use Waymo’s driverless service in Phoenix, Arizona. Fully driverless service is offered to Waymo One riders, who can bring friends and family with them, and will eventually be available to the public through an app.

To increase the geographical scope of the service and add capacity, trained vehicle operators will be reintroduced in a COVID-19-safe way by adding in-vehicle barriers between the front and rear seats. Waymo recently published information about its safety framework, stating, “We believe this transparency and accountability are important for demonstrating the trustworthiness of our operations, and critical to deepen the dialogue around autonomous driving safety.”

Full Article: IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2021

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