Daimler Truck North America has revealed its first ever combined battery electric truck with integrated autonomous driving technology.
The truck is based on a production battery electric Freightliner eCascadia and is equipped with Torc’s autonomous driving software and the latest Level 4 sensor and compute technology.
Torc Robotics is Daimler Truck’s independent subsidiary for autonomous virtual driver technology.
Daimler’s goal is to offer customers a choice of the right vehicles for their specific business and transportation needs.
John O’Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Truck North America, said:
“By combining zero-emission and autonomous technologies in one product, we are testing solutions for challenges our customers are likely to face in the future.”
Joanna Buttler, Head of Global Autonomous Technology Group at Daimler Truck, added:
“Together with Torc, we are making significant progress towards introducing autonomous trucks in the U.S. by 2027. While we target autonomous trucks with conventional propulsion technology for this first market launch, we always look further into the future.”
The battery electric Freightliner eCascadia went into production in 2022 and has now reached 6 million real-world miles in more than 55 fleets in the United States.
The battery can be recharged to 80 percent capacity in as little as 90 minutes. Several battery and drive axle options are available, providing a typical range of 155, 220 or 230 miles, depending on the specific configuration.
For the first time, the autonomous sensor suite and compute power, currently being tested on the autonomous diesel Cascadia, is packaged to fit the smaller day cab configuration of the battery electric eCascadia.
In the currently tested hub-to-hub application, the truck’s intent is to drive autonomously between freight centers along U.S. highway corridors.
The company aims to enter the market with production SAE Level 4 autonomous trucks in the United States by 2027.
Daimler Truck’s technology partner Torc has been testing autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia trucks in real-world applications with selected logistics companies such as Schneider and C.R. England, successfully moving customer freight autonomously on its test route between Phoenix and Oklahoma City, over the past year.
Daimler Truck has emphasized that it will leverage the highly scalable and profitable market opportunity that autonomous driving is expected to offer, and that it expects autonomous trucking to generate revenues of 3 billion Euro and EBIT of more than 1 billion Euro as early as 2030.
