• Waymo, the autonomous vehicle arm of Google, has extended its partnership with UPS to trial autonomous trucks to transport cargo between two UPS’ North American Air Freight (NAAF) facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, Texas. The pilot commenced last week and will continue through to the end of December.

• Waymo will use multiple Class-8 Perterbilts trucks (numbers not disclosed) retrofitted with its fifth-generation “Waymo Driver” software for the project. The trucks will have a safety driver and a software technician on board during the trial.

• Waymo focuses on both goods and passenger transportation. “Waymo Via” is dedicated to autonomous cargo transportation, including trucking, and its vehicles are powered by “Waymo Driver,” its autonomous driving technology platform. The company has been testing its self-driving trucks since 2018 in various projects in California, Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: Waymo and UPS first partnered in January 2020 to trial Waymo’s autonomous delivery vans in Tempe, Arizona. This test is the first of Waymo’s autonomous trucks with UPS and seems to be an interesting move, given the competing autonomous truck manufacturer TuSimple has been UPS’ exclusive autonomous trucking partner until now. TuSimple has maintained partnerships with UPS and its NAAF division since 2019 to haul goods between Texas and Arizona.</ul>