Waymo Via, the trucking and local delivery unit of autonomous driving technology company Waymo, and global logistics company, C.H. Robinson, have formed a long-term strategic partnership to explore the application of autonomous driving technology in logistics and supply chains. The partnership combines the benefits of Waymo’s autonomous driving technology, the Waymo Driver, with C.H. Robinson’s Navisphere technology, a connected logistics platform.
The collaboration will focus, initially, on running multiple pilots in the Dallas-Houston transportation lane, with Waymo Via autonomous trucks hauling C.H. Robinson’s customer freight.
During and after the pilots, the companies will collaborate to shape the future development and expansion of autonomous driving technology as an additional transportation solution.
The company say this will provide capacity, help improve the carrier and driver experience and address the business challenges posed by long-term driver shortages.
Charlie Jatt, Head of Commercialization for Trucking at Waymo, says: “We look forward to this collaboration with C.H. Robinson, both for their deep roots and experience in logistics and transportation, but also as a company that shares our vision of how technology and autonomous trucking can change our industry for the better. C.H. Robinson’s size, scale and platform gives us access to rich and unique transportation data along with customer relationships and pilot opportunities to help bring our Waymo Via solution to the market.”
“We are excited to partner with Waymo Via to explore how autonomous driving technology can help bring increased capacity and sustainability into our logistics strategies. Together, we are going to harness this emerging freight technology and its potential on behalf of customers and carriers,” adds Chris O’Brien, Chief Commercial Officer at C.H. Robinson. “We believe there is a real opportunity to bring our scale and information advantage to bear to help develop transportation solutions for them and their ability to participate in and benefit from AV. C.H. Robinson is also best positioned to represent the role of drivers and small and mid-size carriers in a more autonomous future.”
The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, the world’s first fully autonomous ride-hailing service, as well as Waymo Via, our trucking and local delivery service.
To date, Waymo has autonomously driven tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions of miles in simulation, across 13+ US states
