A robotics company piloting autonomous tractor-trailers picked Albuquerque as an on-road test site in 2020. Now, it's expanding down Interstate 40 into New Mexico's western neighbor.
Torc Robotics Inc., which is developing an autonomous driving system for tractor-trailers, just added Arizona to its test zone. The company is running extensive simulations, closed course and on-road testing to ensure the safety of the autonomous vehicle system. Arizona joins Virginia, Texas and New Mexico as a Torc testing location.
There are nearly a dozen companies testing autonomous vehicles in Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation website.
Torc started tractor-trailers test routes in Arizona last month, according to a post on the company's website. Steep elevation changes, different traffic conditions along I-40 and the state's key role in the Southwest freight corridor were cited as reasons why Arizona was selected.
Test crews in New Mexico will support the new testing across the border, said Torc Industry Partnerships Leader Walter Grigg, in an email to Business First. The company opened a 40,000-square-foot facility in Albuquerque in 2020.
"The foundational test processes will be the same," Grigg said in an email response when asked if testing in Arizona would look different than the on-road testing in New Mexico. "However, the Arizona testing route is longer by design — meant to further define capabilities and logistics around the long-haul application."
Torc will continue to test and operate its technology in New Mexico, Grigg said.
The size of Torc's testing fleet "continues to ramp up as we increase testing and work toward developing the first profitable, scalable commercialized autonomous truck solution for over-the-road trucking applications," he said.
The autonomous vehicle system could be ready to roll out by the end of the decade, said Peter Vaughan Schmidt, Torc's CEO, in a November interview. The company is working with German-based Daimler Truck as the original equipment manufacturer for the tractor-trailers Torc uses to test its system.
Torc has seen other expansion this year. It opened an engineering office in Austin, Texas, and a technology and development center in Stuttgart, Germany, both in the spring.
