Paccar has taken another step on the road to highly autonomous trucks, by signing a global agreement with autonomous tech company, Aurora, to test and commercialise autonomous Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks.
Paccar will offer autonomous-enabled vehicles as a part of the deal, while Aurora will provide hardware, software, and operational support. The two companies will also work together to source components and technology, and to integrate Peterbilts and Kenworths with the Aurora Driver platform.
Outfitted Kenworth T680 and Peterbilt 579 trucks with Aurora Driver are to be deployed in North America in the next several years, according to a related press release. The vehicles will be validated at thePaccar Technical Centre before that.
“This partnership brings us one step closer to unlocking the autonomous freight market and delivering goods to those who need them,” said Chris Urmson, Aurora co-founder and CEO. “We’ve been impressed with Paccar’s product engineering, manufacturing capabilities, and commitment to enhancing its customers’ operational safety and efficiency.”
The news follows a series of recent announcements by other OEMs who are developing autonomous vehicles with partnerships of their own.
Daimler has partnered with Waymo, formerly known as Google’s self-driving car project, as well as Torc Robotics. Navistar is partnering with TuSimple. Volvo Group has joined forces with NVIDIA.