Amazon and Daimler partners on self-driving trucks project

 

The German automobile giant Daimler has collaborated with Amazon for its self-driving truck project. The latter will help with the testing of the vehicles.

Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler specialises in vehicle automation software. The firm chose Amazon Web Services as a cloud provider for the upcoming tests of its trucks in New Mexico and Virginia. The latter was chosen because of its extensive capabilities" in areas such as data transfer, storage and analytics. Thanks to this, the automaker will be able to accelerate the testing and commercialisation of Level 4 technology.

Based in Virginia, Torc Robotics first collaborated with Daimler Trucks in early 2019. Then, the German company acquired it afterwards. In June, last year, a partnership with US chip firm Nvidia was announced. The aim behind this move was to develop AI driving applications which included Levels 2, 3 and 4. In October, it partnered with Google-Alphabet subsidiary Waymo. An agreement was signed to equip US company Freightliner's Cascadia lorries with Level 4 technology.

What does this imply? Vehicle autonomy is classified along a scale, from 0 to 5. The largest number means total autonomy. At level 4, a vehicle does not need a driver but it can drive around a specified geographic area only.

New technologies for self-driving trucks are being tested © Royalty-free image



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