Dive Brief:
- Torc Robotics is preparing its self-driving trucks to haul commercial freight along Interstate 35 with the opening of its first autonomous trucking hub in Fort Worth, Texas, according to a May 15 press release.
- The hub will serve as an operational base for the company’s autonomous efforts, and includes a customer experience center, offices and control centers for fleet management and operations.
- “This hub represents more than just logistics,” said Torc CCO Andrew Culhane. “It represents years of relentless planning and prioritization, input from industry experts, and the dedication and tireless effort of Torc’s teams.”
Dive Insight:
Ahead of its expected 2027 U.S. market launch, Torc plans to test autonomous trucks on a new lane on Interstate 35, a major freight route between Laredo, Texas, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
In a previous statement, Torc CEO Peter Vaughan Schmidt said establishing a presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area was a critical milestone for the independent Daimler Truck subsidiary.
”As we work toward commercialization, the new hub will give us access to talent, resources and routes that we didn’t previously have, and we’re excited about the growth opportunities ahead,” Schmidt said.
The hub features 22,000 square feet of office space on an 18-acre site within AllianceTexas, a 27,000-acre development in North Texas. At the heart of the hub is Torc’s “Mission Management” room, which tracks the lifecycle of each autonomous journey — from pre-trip checklist to arrival transmissions — on a theater-sized screen.
The release did not include specifics about how many employees will be working at the new facility, but Torc disclosed in November that it planned to shift many of its resources from Albuquerque, which was an original testing location, to Dallas to support its future commercialization efforts. The company also expected to hire more than 100 people in Dallas in 2025.
Torc anticipates that the move to the new hub will create a “more bustling, even more energetic” commercialization space that will eventually transition to a 24-hour facility, according to the release.
Torc isn’t the only AV company making inroads in the Lone Star State. In May, competitor Aurora launched a regular, heavy-duty driverless trucking service between Houston and Dallas.
Meanwhile, Daimler Truck North America recently delivered the autonomous-ready version of its fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia to Torc. Citing over 1,500 engineering requirements, Daimler says the latest generation sets an industry standard for autonomous system integration.
“Fully integrating Torc’s autonomous driver with Daimler Truck’s Freightliner Cascadia platform creates an industry-first, scalable, physical-AI autonomous trucking solution,” Schmidt said in an April statement
