Torc chose Ann Arbor because of the opportunity to draft the talent base provided by local institutions of higher education. (Torc)
March 2, 2026 5:19 PM, EST
Key Takeaways:
- Torc expanded testing of its self-driving Freightliner Cascadias to Michigan in February as it advances toward commercial driverless operations planned for 2027.
- The company says Michigan’s varied weather and Ann Arbor’s engineering talent are key to training and validating its Level 4 autonomous trucking software.
- Torc expects to continue testing through 2026 while ramping hiring and preparing its first driverless freight lane between Laredo and Dallas.
Self-driving truck software developer Torc took another step closer to launching commercial driverless operations in 2027 in recent days, the Daimler Truck unit said.
Freightliner Cascadias equipped with Torc’s autonomous driving software began testing in Michigan in February, adding to trials already underway on roads in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and near Blacksburg, Va.
“We get four seasons within Michigan, which gives us a wide variety of climates and weather conditions to operate in; meaning that we’re getting a big diversity in terms of the data that we’re actually collecting from our trucks, which is so critical,” said Vice President of Engineering Dave Anderson.
“That’s what we need in order to train our models. That’s what we need in order to improve the software. And it’s also what we need to validate our overall safety performance in the truck itself,” Michigan native Anderson told Transport Topics in a Feb. 27 interview.
The Ann Arbor office opened in 2025 as part of Torc’s push toward commercial operations, with the Blacksburg-based company’s original testing location in Albuquerque, N.M., and technology hub in Stuttgart, Germany, wound down.
Torc chose Ann Arbor because of the opportunity to draft the talent base provided by local institutions of higher education — the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor offers top 15-ranked engineering and computer science schools — and tap southeast Michigan’s automotive knowledge base.
“We’ve grown this team size to about 200 people right now that are working from the Ann Arbor office. We continue to see growth in a variety of different software disciplines that span everything from embedded software all the way to machine learning and other AI-based modalities. So it’s really exciting,” Anderson said.
Torc is still hiring for roles in the Ann Arbor office and remote positions to support testing and development in the software engineering, artificial intelligence and machine learning units.
“We will be continuing to test and develop throughout 2026 with a path towards commercialization in 2027. That’s our aim right now. That is a continuous spectrum,” Anderson said.
“These are software-defined trucks from everything that we’re building and that we’re engineering into them. Meaning that as we operate, they continue to get better, they continue to learn as we move towards our final safety verification validation. That’s intentional; it’s by design,” he added.
“Autonomous-ready” Cascadias began operating on public roads in Texas for the first time in July.
(Torc via YouTube)
In 2024, Torc began testing its self-driving trucks on what is expected to be the company’s first driverless freight lane. The lane between Laredo and Dallas is one of the busiest in the U.S. and passes through San Antonio and Austin.
Torc’s autonomous trucks already were being tested on routes in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
Other steps taken by Torc toward commercialization in recent months include inking a deal with Innoviz Technologies for its short-range lidar sensors in December. Torc will continue to work with Aeva for its long-range lidar needs. Lidar technology uses laser pulses to generate high-resolution 3D maps of the environment.
Anderson said his 25 years in the industry have given him a front‑row view of how quickly autonomous technology has advanced and how interest in automated mobility has accelerated over the past decade. He added that Torc’s focus on Level 4 trucking is aimed at addressing a defined operational challenge for freight haulers.
“It’s that piece where it really solves the business need and the business case for enhancing capability for our shippers and carriers,” he told TT.
