Daimler Truck Unveils Ambitious Autonomous Truck Strategy

This Week In The Road to Autonomy Index — For the week of July 10, 2023, The Road to Autonomy Index returned 3.43%, while the S&P 500 returned 2.27. The top performing stocks in The Road to Autonomy Index this week were Goodyear, Glencore and NVIDIA.

On this episode, Grayson Brulte discusses Daimler Truck Holding Capital Market Day 2023 and the company’s ambitious autonomous trucking strategy anchored by Torc. Between 2025 and 2030, Daimler Truck is projecting that revenues will grow by 60%.

Part of this revenue growth will be derived from their autonomous truck strategy. Starting in 2027, Daimler Truck will begin delivering factory-grade autonomous trucks to the market. Some of these autonomous trucks will be powered by Torc and operated in a hub-to-hub model in the Southwest of the United States, while others will be delivered to partners such as Waymo.

By 2030, Daimler Truck is projecting €3 billion in potential revenue with €1 billion in Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT). On the news, Daimler’s stock rose 2.5% on July 11, 2023. It’s an ambitious strategy, but it is a strategy that will help to move the entire industry forward.

In order for autonomous trucks to scale, there has to be infrastructure as the trucks will operate in a hub-to-hub model. The hub-to-hub model will benefit large commercial real estate owners such as The Road to Autonomy Index component company, Prologis and Blackstone. Prologis and Blackstone are the two largest owners of commercial real estate in the world.

Even if autonomous trucks have the world’s greatest infrastructure, they still need public trust. Expanding the conversation into policy, Grayson discusses the SAG-AFTRA strike and its potential impact on autonomy along with California’s reluctance to fully embrace autonomy.

Using history as a guide he explains why California stands to loose jobs if they put undue regulations around autonomy. The economy of California will suffer the same way the economy of New York City suffered in 1945 when the elevator operators, doorman, porters and maintenance workers went on strike over the introduction of automated or “operator less” elevators.

The strike cost the City $100 million in economic loss. Now imagine this negative economic impact being applied to an entire State’s economy over the course of a century or longer? It would be catastrophic.

Today we are merely at the starting line for what is to come with autonomy and its economic impact. It’s time for society to come together and usher in the Autonomy Economy as autonomy will create jobs. History is our guide.

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The Road to Autonomy Index®

The Road to Autonomy Index is an autonomous vehicle index comprised of 38 publicly-traded companies. The Index is a rules-based equity benchmark index that is calculated by Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices. The Index measures the performance of a basket of global companies that are involved in the development and commercialization of autonomous driving technologies.

Included in the Index are companies that are developing autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars), autonomous trucks and off-road specialty vehicles. As well as transportation, technology, industrial and services companies that have identified autonomy as a key component of their growth strategies. 

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