Introduction dates of commercial driverless trucks are coming into focus. Here's the latest on Daimler, Aurora, and Waymo seen through the eyes of an industry expert.
Here's what’s cool: not only did Daum announce their planned commercialization date for automated trucks, he laid out a four-phase deployment approach encompassing where they will deploy and in what sequence. Phase 1 will encompass California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas on interstate highways I-10 and I-40. The I-40 route will continue into Arkansas and on to Memphis. Oklahoma City to St Louis on I-44 is also included.
What do Daimler’s revenue numbers mean in the real world? To answer this question, I turned to my go-to trucking expert Lee White, who spent decades at UPS and after retirement worked for TuSimple as VP of Strategy until late last year. At UPS he was very involved in their evaluations of automated driving tech and setting a path forward for eventual adoption.
One of the strongest plays in automated trucking is Torc Robotics, 51% of which is owned by Daimler Trucks. I recently had an opportunity to experience the Torc automated driving system on freeways near their operations center in Albuquerque. From knowing the team for some time and having many discussions over the years, I expected their truck would run well on the highway. I was not disappointed.
Aurora’s burn rate has been going in the right direction. The company said it narrowed its net loss for the 2Q23 to $218 million compared with a loss of $1.1 billion in the same quarter last year. “Still much too high,” my colleagues would say., raising $853 million of total gross proceeds through a public offering, which included “very strong support from key institutional and strategic investors” according to their press release. Aurora said their beefed-up total liquidity is now $1.
Aurora’s 2Q23 report discussed recent progress in this regard. During 2Q23 PACCAR completed a 1.5 million equivalent mile durability test of a Kenworth cab with the Aurora Driver hardware installed. The company said the Aurora Driver hardware remained fully functional at the end of the test. Regarding
Compared to performance in the first quarter, about half of the 2Q loads had an API of 100% and nearly 75% of the loads had an API greater than or equal to 99%. It’s important to remember that at a fundamental level, Waymo was founded to “change the world” in personal mobility. After an early exploratory phase examining highway driving and personal vehicles, they zeroed in on robotaxis, which have immense potential to revolutionize the way people travel. This has always been their Big Audacious Dream and now they’re of one mind with a single offering.
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