Joanna Buttler, Head of the Global Autonomous Technology Group, Daimler Truck North America joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the introduction of the autonomous battery electric Freightliner eCascadia demonstrator, Daimler’s 2027 autonomous truck commercial launch and the company’s vision for the future of autonomous trucking. 

2027 will be a pivotal year for Daimler Truck as the company commences commercial operations. In just under 3 years, Daimler Truck will be in the market offering SAE Level 4 autonomous trucking solutions to their customers. It’s a journey that started in 2019 when Daimler Truck went “all in” on autonomy, driven by the immense potential to solve major challenges like driver shortages and enable 24/7 freight movement for their customers. 

Daimler Truck’s vision for autonomy is an ambitious one that leverages their decades of experience and translates it into autonomous-ready commercial trucks. While the excitement today is around battery electric trucks, Daimler is taking a propulsion-agnostic approach, aiming to integrate their autonomous driving systems seamlessly across diesel, electric, and potentially hydrogen fuel cell platforms. Daimler’s goal is to provide their customers with the ultimate flexibility to deploy autonomous trucks optimized for different use cases, lanes and routes.

Underpinning Daimler’s autonomous strategy is an absolute commitment to safety and doing it “the right way” by factory-installing production-ready systems and not relying on retrofits. Joanna is optimistic that Daimler Truck’s manufacturing prowess, established sales/service networks, and decades building customer trust will be key competitive advantages.

Looking ahead to 2030, Joanna sees consolidation in the autonomous trucking market, but with Daimler aiming for a decisive market leadership position leveraging their traditional truck expertise, production capabilities, partners, and established dealer network. As autonomy scales, autonomous trucking could potentially become larger than Daimler Truck’s traditional business.

Recorded on Friday, May 24, 2024

Episode Chapters

0:00 Autonomous Battery Electric Freightliner eCascadia Demonstrator

4:53 The Role of Dealers

6:46 Autonomous Truck Maintenance 

8:59 Propulsion Agnostic 

15:20 Infrastructure as a Catalyst 

17:40 Autonomy Success Metrics

20:47 New Autonomous Trucks?

23:10 Daimler Truck’s Passion for Autonomy

25:26 Why 2027?

27:13 Factory Grade Autonomous Trucks

28:57 Autonomy in 2027

31:05 Future of Daimler Truck

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