Plus, a global provider of autonomous driving software solutions, announced today a long-term partnership with truck-makers MAN, Navistar, and Scania to power the global commercial deployment of autonomous long haul trucks.

Munich-based TRATON SE is the parent and holding company of the TRATON GROUP, one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. The Group’s product portfolio comprises trucks, buses, and light-duty commercial vehicles, sold through the brands above plus Volkswagen Truck & Bus.

Plus offerings encompass next generation safety systems crash avoidance, driver-in highly automated PlusDriveⓇ, and driver-out SuperDrive. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California with operations in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

The SAE Level 4 driverless freight solution will be produced and sold directly by Scania, MAN, and Navistar to their freight-carrier customers. The use case will focus on hub-to-hub operations, i.e. operations only on limited-access highways.

Plus will supply its SuperDrive Level 4 software via their Open Autonomy Platform. The individual OEMs will take responsibility for sourcing hardware and defining the overall product. Plus has contracted separately with each of the three truck-makers to support product rollouts.

Big Boy Truck Builders

TRATON is one of the largest truck OEMs globally, selling 281,000 trucks in 2023. Sales were distributed across Scania (91,000), MAN (83,000), Navistar (75,000), and Volkswagen Trucks. Only Daimler Trucks is larger by units sold, selling 526,000 units last year. During the same period, PACCAR sold about 200,000 trucks and Volvo Trucks came in at approximately 150,000 trucks. (Unit sales information was not readily available for Iveco, Hyundai Motor, or Volkswagen Trucks.)

Today’s news fills a gap in the heavy truck AV race. In recent years, Daimler, PACCAR, and Volvo Group solidified their go-to-market partners for Automated Driving Systems (ADS). But Navistar was actually the first mover among the OEMs, partnering with ADS truck developer TuSimple in 2020. TRATON acquired Navistar in 2021.

Things appeared to be humming along nicely until late 2022, when TuSimple got into technical and management troubles and basically fumbled the ball. Navistar ended the partnership with TuSimple in December 2022.

Fifteen months later, the companies say that joint development between the TRATON GROUP brands and Plus was already underway last year, with the collaboration going back even further.

Wasting No Time…

Today, the partners also revealed that trucks of the TRATON GROUP brands equipped with Plus’s Level 4 SuperDrive are already being tested on public roads in Europe and the U.S. with a safety driver on board.

The companies note they will pilot commercial operations with fleets later this year on the way to starting series production and global commercial deployment at scale.

“We see autonomous as a key part of our offer for a full range of safe, efficient and sustainable transport solutions that can be adapted according to each individual customer’s specific needs, something which is further strengthened by our partnership with Plus,” said Peter Hafmar, Vice President and Head of Autonomous Solutions at Scania, leading the coordination of Autonomous Solutions for the TRATON GROUP.

“Plus is thrilled to have our industry leading autonomous driving software be chosen for the TRATON GROUP’s impressive portfolio of storied and trusted global commercial vehicle brands across Scania, MAN, and Navistar,” said Shawn Kerrigan COO and Co-Founder at Plus. “Together we will accelerate the global commercialization of Level 4 autonomous trucks and bring to market safer and more sustainable transportation solutions.”

“By expanding our autonomous hub-to-hub program, we are taking a leading position in providing autonomous solutions to our customers,” added Hafmar, referring to the common approach across over-the-road driverless truck offerors to set up “transfer hubs” near highway off-ramps. Trailers being pulled by an AV truck on the highway are transferred from AV-driven tractors to human-driven tractors to complete their journey into cities and industrial sites.

Testing on Texas and Sweden Highways

Navistar and Plus are now testing their L4 autonomous trucks in the freight corridor between San Antonio and Dallas in Texas and will expand to other routes in the Texas triangle and I-10 corridor. Commercial deployments will further expand incrementally along strategic U.S. corridors, they say.

In Europe, testing is currently on a route between Södertälje and Nyköping in Sweden, and there are plans to conduct pilot operations with customers in other European countries in 2024.

The companies say they will pilot commercial autonomous trucking operations with fleets, then start series production and global commercial deployment at scale. This is an approach similar to the other OEMs with advanced truck ADS partnerships.

When will the first TRATON GROUP products roll out? Timing for a L4 truck product was not stated in the announcement, but Mr. Kerrigan noted that the launch of L4 trucks “will occur at a competitive time with the other leaders.”

Plus Strengthens Its OEM Portfolio

This is not Plus’s first L4 partnership with a major OEM. In 2021, the company partnered with IVECO to bring Level 2 and Level 4 truck products to market.

Testing has been underway in Germany for IVECO trucks equipped with the PlusDrive L2 system since last year. Not long ago, Plus announced that dm-drogerie markt, Europe’s largest retail chain of drugstores, and logistics provider DSV will launch an automated trucking pilot in Germany starting in the first half of this year. An IVECO heavy duty truck integrated with PlusDrive will operate on a DSV route to transport dm-drogerie markt products in Germany’s Baden-Württemberg-Hessen region.

Two Equals Four

According to Plus, L2 PlusDrive is essentially Plus’s L4 system operating on a truck without L4 redundancy, thus requiring human supervision.

In an interview, Mr. Kerrigan reiterated what he and Plus have been saying for years, i.e. that fielding their L2 system provides indispensable data to empower their L4 development processes. He noted that today’s announcement “is not a pivot, we’ve been consistent on this approach for five years.” He added that with PlusDrive their trucks have logged “over a million miles” across the lower 48 states in all weather conditions.”

It's A Big Deal

A recent analyst estimate, shared with me privately, sees the total available market for L4 trucking reaching $160 billion by 2035.

To meet this market demand, it is highly significant to see the fourth of four North American truck OEMs selecting an ADS provider with aims to move quickly to product introduction.

It’s now clearer than ever that truck fleet customers accessing L4 via their familiar OEM channel is poised to become the norm across the OEMs active in L4. Plus’s modular approach allows OEMs to disaggregate hardware and software, which aligns with trends across the vehicle industry.

Plus is in a very exclusive club, having two L4 truck OEM partnerships in their pocket. And, their operations in the U.S. as well as Europe and Australia (working with Transurban) are distinctive.

The announcement today that TRATON brand trucks will be conducting on-road L4 testing in Europe with SuperDrive this year is the first L4 EU activity that I’m aware of in this current commercialization phase. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if other L4 players are doing the same, staying under the radar. As autonomous driving regulations evolve across the globe, the players aim to be ready.

But it’s still the U.S. where commercialization of driverless trucks will happen first. Navistar, with Plus, is back in the game. The roster is full. The cylinders are firing. The lidars are spinning. And the wheels of investment, development, and deployment are turning.

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